


Phantom Girl

by orphan_account



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Eaten by a Bear, Flagrant Use of Anime-Only Characters, Gen, Giant Phallic Structures, Illegal Activities, Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!, Kidnapping, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Snakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-31
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-07 02:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 239,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/743032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Phantom is famous for not getting along with Fairy Tail. I actually fretted deciding which one I wanted to join. After all, their reputation is nearly as nuts as Fairy Tail's!"</p><p>Chapter One: Lucy helps a dragonslayer defeat some slavers, and in exchange he invites her to join his guild! ...no, not that dragonslayer. No, not that guild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Iron Dragonslayer

Corder Cleeve, Assistant Stationmaster of Edelweiss Town, found himself faced with an impossible dilemma: should he get an early night, knowing he had to start work at an unholy hour the next morning, or should he go down to the bar with his friends? He paced, he dithered, he weighed the pros and cons of each and even asked his mother and still he couldn't justify going drinking. Finally, in desperation, he flipped a coin.  
  
Here, it landed heads. Corder whooped, went to the bar and got utterly and incomprehensibly sloshed.  
  
The next morning he found himself in someone else's bed, bombs detonating behind his eyes and his tongue like sandpaper. With great effort he toppled himself onto the floor and crawled across the room to a writing desk. On pink rose-patterned notepaper he scrawled _TRAIN BOSS. CAN'T WORK BECAUSE DYING. YRS C. C. XOXO._  
  
The window was cracked open just a little; he poked the letter through the gap and watched it waft to the street below. That done, Corder slid gently back onto the floor and closed his eyes. He thought his pants might be on the roof.  
  
It had been a good night, he decided.  
  
Outside, a helpful passerby picked up the letter, painstakingly deciphered the chickenscratch handwriting and bore it to the home of Stationmaster Aberell. The Stationmaster immediately recognised his subordinate's script, which was not actually that much better when he was sober, and snarled between his teeth. He dressed in a hurry, straightened his tie and stationmaster's hat, kissed his wife and three children (lined up in height order to wish him goodbye) and marched down to the station in high dudgeon. This was not the first time that Assistant Stationmaster Cleeve had done this, though had he not been the local area manager's nephew it would have been the last. He was a workshy layabout slacker brat, just as Stationmaster Aberell muttered to himself as he inspected the tracks that morning, and he certainly wouldn't have noticed that one of the joints in the railroad track was coming apart. Stationmaster Aberell did. There was a very small chance that this could damage one of the trains, so Stationmaster Aberell got straight onto the station's radio, shouted at the department of maintenance until they agreed to send someone over that same day, and then went to tell the waiting customers that the trains that day were all cancelled. Of course, nobody was happy to hear that, but Stationmaster Aberell didn't care. In his opinion, the customers were only an unwelcome distraction from the smooth running of the railway network.  
  
"Is the train seriously cancelled?" a blonde girl asked plaintively. "I really need to get to Hargeon!"  
  
"Walk," Aberell suggested.  
  
The blonde pouted and leant over, hands on her knees, blouse gaping open. There was no chance that those were real, Aberell decided. "Isn't there anything you can do?"  
  
Aberell informed her coolly that he was married and, moreover, had higher standards than that. The blonde piece of skirt could only fume and stomp away.  
  
She boarded the train to Hargeon on the morning of the next day, twenty-four hours later than she might have done. It probably wasn't enough of a difference to matter.

* * * 

Lucy was sprawled across two train seats, reading the new issue of Sorceror Weekly, when the train drew into the last stop before Hargeon and a squad of Rune Knights came aboard Lucy sat bolt upright with a squeak, trying to remember if she'd done anything illegal in the last month. Everyone else in the carriage had the same reaction.  
  
The Rune Knights didn't descend on anyone with binding spells and handcuffs, though. They sat down, crossed their legs and waited. Maybe they really only needed to get the train. Like normal people. One of them whistled idly as the train pulled out of the station.  
  
“Whistling is prohibited!” the sergeant barked.  
  
Lucy peeked at the Rune Knight next to her. He looked back. Lucy looked quickly back down at her magazine, and then slid her gaze slowly back to inspect him out of the corner of her eye. The young man behind the imposing uniform went bright pink.  
  
“I'm sorry,” Lucy murmured, looking up at him through her eyelashes. “Is there something wrong? I didn't think the Knights usually travelled by public train.”  
  
“Uh,” the young Knight said. He glanced at his commanding officer and then decided to risk it. “There's a problem in Hargeon and it was just quicker to get the train than wait for the transport office to get organised.”  
  
“Oh no! Is it serious?” Lucy asked, and fluttered her eyelashes.  
  
The Rune Knight glanced at his commanding officer again and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Haven't you seen the papers? A hundred girls have been kidnapped by a gang of slave traders!”  
  
“Oh, no!”” Lucy said. “What happened?” She turned her head to look deeply into his eyes, put her hands down on the seat and leant forward. The neck of her top gaped open.  
  
The Rune Knight immediately told her everything.  
  
“Yesterday a mage went into Hargeon claiming to be the Fairy Tail mage Salamander-”  
  
“Oh, I've heard of him!” Lucy interrupted.  
  
“I said claiming to be,” the Knight reminded her. “Anyway he got a swarm of girls eating out of his hand and invited them to a party aboard the ship he just happened to have in port, and then they sailed away-”  
  
“-and didn't come back?” Lucy guessed.  
  
“Exactly,” he said. “The thing is, before they unmoored, a different mage arrived at the harbour saying he was also a mage of Fairy Tail and boarded the ship. He didn't get off before it left, though.”  
  
“So he was one of the slave traders?” Lucy guessed.  
  
“No,” the Rune Knight said, “because Fairy Tail's already been asked about it, and they said that he matched the description of the mage _actually_ called Salamander.”  
  
“So...” Lucy tried to work it out on her fingers and then said, “So he found out they were impersonating him? Why hasn't he stopped them already?” In Weekly Sorceror's rankings of Which Fairy Tail Mage Caused The Most Damage This Month? the Salamander was never out of the top three. He was hardly ever out of the top one. “Did he sink the whole boat?”  
  
“We asked Fairy Tail about that too,” the Rune Knight said, “and they think he probably got travelsick.”  
  
“Travelsick?”  
  
“Travelsick,” the Rune Knight confirmed, with a weary sigh. “One of them said that hopefully they'd thrown him overboard, but then he realised he wasn't wearing any clothes and left in a hurry.”  
  
Lucy laughed.  
  
“It's not a joke,” the Rune Knight said reproachfully.  
  
“I'm sorry,” Lucy lied, and shifted so that her thigh pressed against his. “They must be a lot of trouble when you actually have to deal with them... but if you get travelsick that badly, why would you get onto a boat?”  
  
“I don't know,” the Rune Knight said, shaking his head. “They're all mad – this whole thing is going to be a lot of trouble, though, because it's a naval operation, so we need to get the Caelum fleet on board and they're always uncooperative unless their own necks are on the line.” He sighed. “We probably won't get out there for another six hours, at-”  
  
“Sharing classified information is prohibited!”  
  
The Knight broke off mid-sentence. Lucy ducked down into her seat. The commanding officer's stare seared into them for a few agonising seconds, but finally he moved on.  
  
“Would you, uh, like a drink?” the Knight whispered. “Uh, with me, specifically? Later?”  
  
Lucy cast a quick look out of the window. They were drawing into Hargeon station.  
  
“Absolutely!” she murmured back, doing her best to look enthusiastic. The train slowed. “You can tell me all about how you took on those awful slavers!”  
  
The Rune Knight went red again, and the train stopped.  
  
“Squad! Disembark!” their commanding officer barked. It seemed like he was trying to make up for the lack of official transportation with increased volume. Lucy's Rune Knight scrambled up in double quick time and the whole squad followed after their commanding officer like a line of ducklings as he left the train. “Take care of yourself, now,” Lucy's Rune Knight muttered to her as they left.  
  
“I will!” Lucy chirped, and she was indeed very careful the whole time that she was running down to the harbour and hiring a motorboat. If they were slave traders, then they must be heading to Bosco, right? And if she defeated them and rescued the Fairy Tail mage, then they were bound to let her join, right? This was seriously the perfect opportunity!  
  
The SE-plug boat cost a lot of money to hire. Lucy batted her eyelashes, leant forward over the counter, and said “How much is it really?”  
  
The woman behind the counter looked at her funny.  
  
“Oh fine,” Lucy said, and paid up. Ten minutes later, she was flying over the sea, white spray breaking on either side of her bow. It was a tiny boat, barely big enough for Lucy to sit in, but that made it easier to run, right? It was still draining much more of her reserves than she had anticipated, though. She was starting to worry that it would wear her out completely and that she would be found months later as a bleached skeleton in a drifting boat, when she saw the smoke plume of another ship on the horizon.  
  
She grit her teeth and forced the boat to go faster. The other ship on the horizon grew larger and larger, and then larger, and then quite a bit too large, looming over her like a solid wall. “Where's the brake on this thing?” Lucy wailed, hands skittering over the controls, but it was too late for that. In desperation she grabbed the wheel and dragged it all the way around to the left. The boat hit the ship side-on rather than powering into it head-first. The jolt still nearly threw Lucy over the side of the ship. She clutched at the wheel and hung on until the boat stopped rocking. Had anyone heard that? She craned her head up. Nobody was leaning over the rail looking down at her. Lucy grabbed the mooring tether, pressed it against the side of the ship and activated the magic to hold it in place, and then reached for her keys.  
  
“Open! Gate of the Bull, Taurus!”  
  
She regretted this decision about half a second after she made it, when she found herself jammed up against the wheel by Taurus's bulk. Taurus appreciated this a lot more than Lucy did, and he was just as happy to throw her up to the deck of the ship.  
  
“It would be an honour to handle Miss Lucy's _perfect body_!”  
  
“I know,” Lucy agreed, exasperated, “but can we get on with it? I'm in sort of a hurry-”  
  
She scrambled up onto the control panel, and Taurus grabbed her around the waist and threw her into the air. She barely had time to regret it before the deck came up to meet her.  
  
“Ow!”  
  
“Miss Lucy?” Taurus shouted from down below. She dragged herself to the rail and waved down at him.  
  
“I'm all right! Thanks, Taurus!”  
  
Taurus gave an appreciative moo which, after a moment, Lucy realised was because the rail was pushing her breasts up. She sighed, closed his gate and turned away.  
  
“Wow,” she said under her breath. It looked more like a cruise ship than a slaver, with a second deck raised over the first by high columns and wide glass windows. There were still tables set out on the deck. The cutlery rattled as the engines vibrated through the floor.  
  
From where she stood she could see a massive door in the middle of the upper decks, but it was ablaze with lights and she could hear accordion music drifting through the windows, so there was no way she would try getting through there. Lucy crept down the deck to the stern, ducking under the portholes. Everything back there stank of smoke and was coated with a thick layer of soot. Lucy made a disgusted face and stuck out her tongue.  
  
Almost invisible under the soot was a back door. Lucy tugged on it until it squeaked open and revealed a narrow staircase going down into the dark. She took a cautious step forward, feeling along the walls as she went. Her fingers brushed a light switch. She flicked it on. The electric lights buzzed, flickered and failed. Lucy blew out a sigh.  
  
She followed the narrow corridors down into the bowels of the ship, tracing the walls with her fingers and listening for voices. It wasn't a voice that first warned her, though, it was that in the next corridor there was a light on. She paused at the edge of the circle of light, wiggled her toes in anticipation and peeked around the corner. A slaver was standing guard outside a locked room and smoking a cigarette. He was a big man, with a stitched-up scar running right across his face under his eyes and black hair that stuck straight up.  
  
Lucy reached for her keys carefully, so they didn't jangle, and stepped out into the hallway. The slaver looked up. His eyes widened. He charged her.  
  
“Open, Gate of the Crab!” Lucy shouted. “Cancer!”  
  
Cancer's first swipe chopped the slaver's cigarette in half. The man stumbled, there was a blur of shining steel, and the slaver crumpled to the ground. His newly-bald head gleamed in the electric lights. Cancer stood over him, scissors poised.  
  
Lucy wasn't sure how exactly Cancer incapacitated people by cutting their hair, but she wasn't going to argue with it. Instead she whooped and gave him a high five. “Good job, Cancer!”  
  
Cancer murmured some polite thanks.  
  
Lucy retrieved the guard's key, unlocked the door and pulled it open with a flourish. She was greeted by a confused babble of voices. “Who are you?” “Did you come to save us?” “What happened?”  
  
Lucy pressed one hand to her cheek, modestly waved off all the praise and said “Oh, it was nothing, you don't have to thank me.”  
  
“Where are the sailors?” one of the girls asked.  
  
“You don't need to thank me,” Lucy repeated, more loudly, eyes narrowed into slits.  
  
There was a long pause. “Thank you?” one of the girls said eventually. “Um. Did you come to help us?”  
  
“Absolutely!” Lucy chirped. The girls were flooding out into the corridor, casting fearful looks around. “Do you have a Fairy Tail mage in there, with you, by any chance?”  
  
“More like Faily Tail,” one of the girls snapped. “He's done nothing but lie there and moan since he got thrown in here. He's completely useless!”  
  
“That's not completely true,” another one said hesitantly. “I was sitting on him. He's quite comfortable. For being a person and not a chair.”  
  
Lucy peered into the dark. Someone was lying on the floor, mouth open, wheezing. The real Salamander! Lucy was... actually not that impressed.  
  
“Maybe we should try to take him up? He might come to in the fresh air,” one of the girls suggested.  
  
“Good idea! One of you carry him,” Lucy said. “I'll lead the way!”  
  
She scampered back up the steps with the kidnapped girls hurrying along behind her, two of them lugging the pink-haired Fairy Tail mage between them. Hee hee, this was working perfectly! Now she only needed to get all the girls into her boat – her boat – her tiny, tiny boat...  
  
There was no way they'd all fit into her boat!  
  
Lucy stopped dead at the top of the stairs, wailed and clutched at her face. The girls piled up behind her. A chorus rose up: “Why'd we stop?” “What happened?” “Is it a pirate?”  
  
Lucy pressed both hands over her face while she thought about it. What should she do? Could she take out the other pirates and turn the ship back to Hargeon? How hard could that be? They were only pirates, after all...  
  
While she was thinking it over, someone leapt over the ship's railing, stamped over to the front doors – the deck shuddered under their boots - threw the doors wide open and roared “SALAMANDER!”  
  
The accordion music stopped dead with a squeal. Lucy goggled.  
  
“What the hell was that?” one of the girls said. Behind her, Lucy heard a choked sound. She glanced behind. The Fairy Tail mage was struggling up the steps towards her, shoving through the crowd. His face was green and his strangely-sharp teeth were clenched with the effort, but he was still moving.  
  
There was another crash from the front of the ship. Lucy started forward.  
  
“Be careful!” one of the girls shouted. “He uses Charm magic!”  
  
Lucy gave her a quick thumbs-up and raced down the deck. The massive front doors weren't just open, they were broken, thrown back so violently their glass panels smashed against the walls.  
  
Inside, in what looked like a pleasant sitting room, dozens of slavers were crowded back against the walls. Two had been poking with their knives at a blue cat in a birdcage, but now they were just gaping openmouthed. Another slaver was lying in the wreckage of a lovely little coffee table. Lucy shrank back against the wall, clutching at the doorframe, but none of them spotted her. All their attention was fixed on the young man standing in the middle of the room, arms folded, massive steel-capped boots planted firmly on the planks. “Don't get in my way, trash,” he growled. He sounded like he'd been gargling with iron filings. “Which one of you is Salamander?”  
  
All the slavers looked towards the sofa opposite the door. The blue-haired man sitting on it brushed wood dust from his cloak and rose to his feet.  
  
“I'm Salamander,” he said. “What's your business with me? I don't take any pleasure in defeating loudmouths like-”  
  
The intruder strode across the room, grabbed him by the front of his cloak, hauled him close and sniffed his head.  
  
“What?” said Lucy.  
  
“What?” said the fake Salamander.  
  
“What?” said most of the slavers.  
  
The intruder threw the fake Salamander back. “You don't smell like a dragonslayer,” he growled. “You're lying, trash. That's irritating.”  
  
The fake Salamander raised one hand. His rings glittered. “What do I smell like, then?”  
  
There was a long silence. “Uh,” said the intruder. “...wha...” He took a stumbling step back. One of the slavers laughed.  
  
“It's Charm, you idiot!” Lucy screamed. “He's using a spell!”  
  
The intruder whipped around to look at her and Lucy caught a glimpse of a faceful of metal before he snarled and drew his fist back, and then his arm, his arm turned into an iron girder and he sent the fake Salamander flying. The fake Salamander crashed straight through the wall, and then through another wall, and then through the hull. Sea water gushed in through the hole. The whole ship listed to one side. Lucy shrieked. The pirate with the accordion started to play 'Orpheus in the Underworld'.  
  
“Hey!” Lucy looked around. The Fairy Tail mage was right behind her, clinging to the doorframe as the ship pitched and yawed underfoot. The blue cat in the birdcage meowed something that sounded like 'Natsu!' but that would have been impossible because cats couldn't talk. The metal mage turned, and laughed.  
  
“Gihihi! You're the Fairy trash, then?”  
  
“I'm Na – _uurrrrgk_ \- Fairy Tail's Flame Dragon Slayer,” the pink-haired mage rasped. He was ghastly white and hanging onto the doorframe to stay upright. Still, the stare he levelled on the metal mage was full of bloodlust. “Who the hell are you?” There was water washing across the floor. The slavers were panicking. Half of them had already fled through the other door, and from the yelling and crashing outside it sounded like they'd run into the girls they'd kidnapped.  
  
“Can you both see that?” Lucy demanded, pointing at the water flooding in through the hole in the ship. They both ignored her. The metal mage approximated a mocking bow.  
  
“Phantom Lord's Iron Dragon, Gajeel, at your service!”  
  
Lucy'd heard of him! He was Phantom Lord's top mage, and he'd been ranked Weekly Sorceror's Worst Possible Boyfriend for the last four years running! That was a record. Manderley the Murdering Axemage had only made it three years.  
  
“I don't care,” Salamander rasped, and staggered forward. “I won't – I won't allow insults to Fairy-” Then he fell over. There was a long pause.  
  
“Um, the boat is sinking,” Lucy said, and was ignored. The stern was tipping up as the bow flooded. The blue cat's birdcage had rolled into the wall. It wailed “Natsu!” again. The tables on the deck were piling up against the front rail. The doorway was filling up with water. Lucy scrambled further into the room to get away from it, shrieking, and then wailed louder when she realised that she'd just trapped herself.  
  
Gajeel picked Salamander up by one ankle and swung him in the air.  
  
“This is boring - is this eriously the best you Fairies have got?”  
  
Salamander snarled and tried to swipe at him. The electric lights flickered and died as something under the floors short-circuited. The cat's birdcage toppled over and slid down the sloping floor towards the icy water.  
  
“Happy!” Salamander shouted, clearly delusional with seasickness.  
  
“Wha?” Gajeel said. “What happened to the lights?”  
  
“The boat's sinking!” Lucy screamed. “It's sinking! It's filling up with water, can you not see that? The boat! Is! Sinking!”  
  
“Why don't you fix it, then, instead of just standing there?” Gajeel barked. He dropped Salamander and forged towards the door, shoving Lucy aside as he went. “I'm going to wreck the rest of these bastards.”  
  
Salamander was crawling towards the birdcage. Lucy clutched at her hair and shrieked. The water was almost knee deep! The whole room was tipped sideways and the sea was still gushing in! She couldn't even summon Aquarius today! “Why couldn't this have happened yesterday?” Lucy wailed. How was she possibly supposed to fix this? How would anyone fix this? How would the slavers fix this?  
  
Lucy whirled around, searching for a maintenance kit. Purple light flared outside the windows. A trail of fire set the fake Salamander down back on the deck, soaking wet, his spiky hair plastered flat against his skull. He strode forward back into the room, purple fire seething around his hands, and then his eyes bulged out in slow motion as one of the girls brained him with a chair.  
  
Lucy raced across the room, slipping and sliding and scrambling over Salamander, who was lying on the floor hanging onto the birdcage for dear life. The other door led to a narrow corridor. Lucy looked back and forth frantically. To the left, uphill, there were steps going down. To the right, where the water was pooling, there was a dead end – and, completely submerged and barely visible under the surface, a purple box fixed to the wall.  
  
Lucy splashed into the water, squealing at the cold, and grabbed at the box. The lid popped open. The water was past Lucy's waist and getting steadily deeper. Lucy pawed hurriedly through the contents – healing items, binding charms, something spiky and labelled “The Chastiser” that Lucy squeaked at and threw away into the water – and finally pulled out a set of brass knuckles with a snowflake embossed on one end.  
  
Would those work? She was a holder-type mage, so she could tell that it was a magic item. But was it what she thought it was?  
  
She hauled herself up. She was standing more on the wall than on the floor now, but she grasped the doorframe, kicked like a mule and hauled herself up. The couch the fake Salamander had been sitting on had slid down into the water, but the end still stuck up above the surface. The real Salamander had either managed to get out onto the deck, or slid down into the water and-  
  
Lucy scrambled onto the end of the couch, closed her hand into a fist around the brass knuckles, and dived at the water, screaming. “Lucy Puuuuuunch!”  
  
The magic activated as her knuckles hit the water. Her knees hit ice. The ripples washed out across the room, and the water froze solid in its wake. Lucy scrambled to her feet, whooped and punched the air. “Yes! I did it!”  
  
Then the ship tipped up the other way as the ice buoyed it up. Lucy tumbled over and rolled across the floor. “Ow!” She righted herself, rubbing her scraped knees and elbows, and then scampered over the ice – there was no sign of a pink-haired wizard with a birdcage frozen inside it – and out onto the deck.  
  
To her eternal relief, the girls had just mopped up the last of the slavers. Salamander was flopped down in the bow. He was obviously exhausted from the effort of saving the cat, but at least while he was curled up there looking like a candidate for euthanasia he wasn't trying to challenge Gajeel to a deathmatch all over the ship, so Lucy couldn't bring herself to care. Gajeel had made a heap of unconscious slavers to lounge on as if he were a king of the dead pirates. The fake Salamander had pride of place at the bottom of the pile.  
  
“You missed all the fun,” he greeted her.  
  
“Oh, no! I missed the fighting!” Lucy said, and pretended to be sad. “The boat isn't sinking any more, by the way.”  
  
Gajeel grunted and settled back on his throne of battered pirates.  
  
“You can thank me, if you want to,” Lucy prompted.  
  
“I don't want to,” Gajeel growled. “Are you going to get the boat back to Hargeon or not?”  
  
Lucy bristled. “I'm not your own personal transportation service!”  
  
Gajeel turned his head slowly to look at her. His eyes were narrowed. “What was that, girlie?”  
  
“I said I'm not your personal transportation service!” Lucy snapped. “Get the ship back to Hargeon yourself!”  
  
“Um,” one of the girls said. “Are we going back to Hargeon? At all?”  
  
Gajeel and Lucy both glared at her.  
  
“I'm just saying, getting back to Hargeon is the only way either of you are getting paid.”  
  
“Um,” Lucy said, and looked around. The ship was still canted over, and one whole side – Lucy didn't know if it was port or starboard – was a block of ice. “... _Can_ we get back to Hargeon?” Were they going to have to wait until the navy showed up to get them?  
  
“It's a boat, isn't it?” Gajeel growled. “Why's it matter if it gets wet?”  
  
“Do you have no idea how ships work?” Lucy said, and then gave up completely on trying to explain to him how ships worked and turned back to the girls. “Do any of you know how ships work?”  
  
“My father captains a steamship,” one of the girls said. “I've sailed with him a few times. I could maybe do something?”  
  
“I'm a naval cadet,” another one chimed in.  
  
“I have a Master's in engineering!” said one wearing a pink cloud of ruffles. “It's a standard triple-expansion reciprocating engine, right?”  
  
“I have no idea!” Lucy said. Regardless, the girls hurried downstairs, chatting animatedly about... ship... things? Lucy had no idea. “Good luck!”  
  
“You with that piece of garbage?” Gajeel asked, jerking a thumb at Natsu.  
  
“What?” Lucy said, aghast. “No way! Why would you think we were-”  
  
“Which guild you with, then?”  
  
“Oh. Ohhhh. Uh,” Lucy said. “I'm not in a guild.” Gajeel screwed up his face. “Yet!” Lucy added hurriedly. She wasn't going to tell him that she wanted to join Fairy Tail. Though, looking at the Fairy Tail mage currently passed out in the bow of the ship...  
  
“What's your magic?”  
  
“I'm a Celestial Spirit mage!” Lucy said, and jangled her keys on her belt.  
  
Gajeel snorted. “A summoner? No wonder you're so useless. Have you ever actually been in a fight, or do you just stand there while your summons protect you?”  
  
“That's not fair!” Lucy snapped. “I don't treat my spirits as shields. I fight beside them!”  
  
“Gihihihi!”  
  
“And what sort of laugh is that supposed to be?” Lucy bristled. “I told you, I don't-”  
  
Lucy was interrupted when the engines churned into life. She ran to the stern of the ship.  
  
“Hey! Come back!” Gajeel shouted. Lucy ignored him, and instead hung over the stern railing to stare down. The ship had two propellors. One was still completely submerged but the other stuck up above the surface of the water. Both were turning slowly. Lucy watched them until they were spinning fast enough that the one sticking up above the water threw spray into her face, and then ran back to the bow. “We're moving!”  
  
There was a ragged cheer from the girls.  
  
“Hey, maybe you're worth more than I thought you were,” Gajeel drawled. “Now find me something to eat.”  
  
“I'm not your cook, either!” Lucy snapped. 

* * * 

The ship chugged very, very, very slowly back towards Hargeon. Lucy did the sums and worked out that at this rate, it would take three days to get back to shore, and then she wailed a lot.  
  
Fortunately, though, it wasn't too long before the navy caught up with them. They weren't happy to find out that they wouldn't be getting any of the credit, but still hitched the fake Salamander's ship behind theirs before they turned back to Hargeon. The three girls who'd fixed the ship's engine talked about knots and blah blah nautical things blah which seemed to boil down to that they were going like a train. Plumes of white spray were thrown up before their bow, and the SE-plug boat bobbed behind them like a cork.  
  
Hargeon appeared on the horizon in the evening. As soon as the fake Salamander's ship was cut loose and tied up beside the dock, the girls flooded down the gangplank with cries of relief. Gajeel stretched and climbed off his heap of unconscious slavers. The Rune Knights descended immediately with handcuffs and binding spells. Gajeel slouched over to Salamander, picked him up birdcage and all, and threw him onto the dock, then vaulted over the side and landed next to him. He kicked Salamander in the side. “Oi! Salamander! Get off the tiles, trash!”  
  
Lucy scrambled down the gangplank after them as quickly as she could. Salamander had pushed himself up, and now he was leaning on the birdcage.  
  
“Hey! He's not in any shape to fight-”  
  
Salamander gripped the bars of the birdcage. The muscles in his back and arms tensed. He yanked the cage apart like paper. The blue cat sprouted wings and flew out of the wreckage.  
  
“Uwah?!” Lucy said.  
  
Salamander dropped the fragments of the cage and looked up. “...won't forgive you...”  
  
“You won't forgive me?” Gajeel repeated, and laughed. “Big words, Salamander! Have you got anything to back them up?”  
  
Salamander rose to his knees and rasped “I'll back them up with... my fists...” The blue cat hovered around his head.  
  
Gajeel made to slam a boot down on Salamander's back, but the blue cat shrieked a warning, and Salamander caught his boot and shoved him away. Gajeel stumbled back, and then grinned. “You finally ready to get started?” He stepped back and waited.  
  
Salamander climbed to his feet and straightened, slowly. His stare was fixed on Gajeel and his lips were skinned back from his teeth. “I told you, I won't forgive insults to Fairy Tail!” The air was getting warm. Heat was streaming off his body. An updraft of scorching air ruffled his hair.  
  
“Fairy Tail's garbage,” Gajeel said. “From the old man to the newest little piece of trash.” He squared up, held out a beckoning hand and bared his teeth in something approximating a grin. “Are you going to teach me a lesson now?”  
  
In answer, Salamander's fists burst into flame. Gajeel's skin rippled and turned into iron scales. “I'll end you in one punch, Salamander!” His voice had risen to a shout.  
  
Lucy squeaked and stumbled back until she teetered on the end of the pier. Should she dive from the end of the dock? Should she find them a ruler?  
  
“Stop that this instant!”  
  
The voice cracked like a whip. Salamander froze. Gajeel looked over his shoulder.  
  
“Erza!” said the cat.  
  
Lucy looked, and did a double-take. At the end of the dock stood Erza Titania. One hand was on her hip. The other rested on the hilt of her sword. For a moment her gaze lingered on Lucy, with icy contempt, and then passed over her to Gajeel. Lucy shrank back. Gajeel folded his arms across his chest and met Erza's stare. “You want to fight too, Titania?” His mouth curved into a wolfish grin.  
  
“I'm not interested in battling,” she said bluntly. “I've come to retrieve one of our mages. Natsu, come here.”  
  
“Didn't you hear what he said about-” Salamander protested.  
  
“I heard,” Erza cut him off. “But his opinion isn't worth anything.” She lifted her chin and impaled Salamander on her stare. Salamander quailed. “That was reckless, Natsu. I had to leave a mission and travel a long way to come and rescue you. You shouldn't try to fight on a form of transportation. If I hear you've done it again, I won't be so tolerant. Still...” She sighed. “I won't say anything for now.”  
  
“I think you said a lot already,” Lucy mumbled.  
  
Erza extended a hand. “Come here, now.”  
  
“...aye!” Salamander chirped, and hurried to her side.  
  
“Thank you for your help,” Erza said. Her voice was so cold Lucy couldn't tell if she meant it. “Come on, Natsu. We don't want to miss the train.” Salamander blanched, and wailed “Happy!” as Erza dragged him away. The blue cat flew along behind them.  
  
Gajeel looked after them smugly. “Good to see that the trash know their place,” he said, and strode away down the dock. There was some sort of official there, checking off the rescued girls on a list. As Gajeel stomped up to him, with Lucy close behind, he looked up at them wearily over his glasses and said “I suppose you both want some money?”  
  
“Well of course I didn't do it for the money,” Lucy cooed, flipping her hair. “I did it for the joy of helping my-”  
  
“Good. I'll take all of it then,” Gajeel cut in. “Show me to the money.”  
  
“What?” Lucy protested. “I wanted some too!”  
  
“You barely did anything,” Gajeel told her.  
  
“I stopped the boat sinking!” Lucy said. “And I warned you about the Charm magic. If it wasn't for that you'd be pink and drooling in a cell on that ship right now!”  
  
Gajeel gave it due consideration, then shook his head. “Nope. That's not right.”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“You want to be in a guild, don't you?”  
  
“Where did that come from? But, yeah...” Lucy said, waiting for the trap.  
  
“Phantom Lord's the strongest guild in the country. I'll put in a word for you.”  
  
“What?” Lucy said, completely blindsided.  
  
“I'll get you into Phantom if you stop whinging about the money.”  
  
“...deal!” Lucy said. She hadn't been sure which of Phantom and Fairy Tail she really wanted to join, after all – they were just as strong as each other and Phantom was nearly as outrageous. Besides, Titania was _scary_. This was just as good. It wasn't exactly what she'd planned, but it was just as good.  
  
“Good,” Gajeel said, and gave her a wicked grin. “I won't guarantee that you'll survive, though. Weaklings _don't_.”  
  
For a moment, Lucy wondered if she'd made the right decision. She crushed the niggling doubt and followed Gajeel.


	2. Lucy's First Job

Lucy definitely regretted following Gajeel after she'd spent three hours screaming hysterically on the back of his motorbike. Either Gajeel had never heard of speed limits, helmets or consideration for other road users, or he thought her panicked shrieking was hilarious and wanted to make her do it louder. Probably the latter.  
  
When they finally skidded to a halt in front of the Phantom branch in Oak Town – Lucy thought that had been the name on the signpost, though it had shot past very quickly – Lucy slid off into a heap on the ground. Gajeel locked his motorbike in place with a chain as thick around as Lucy's neck and then flipped her over with his boot. “Hey! You going to lie there all day?” He stomped away into the guild. Lucy wobbled after him.  
  
Inside, the guild hall was a huge round building full of tables and benches and men drinking. A mezzanine ran across the middle, with a high arch under it that showed more tables and drunk men on the other side. Banners with the Phantom Lord insignia hung over the doors. She looked around for Gajeel and found that he'd already collared a bald dark-skinned man wearing a furry jacket and purple-lensed glasses.  
  
“Hey, bozo! Sign the blonde princess up, would you?”  
  
'Bozo' peered over Gajeel's shoulder at Lucy. “You brought back a souvenir?”  
  
Gajeel just grunted. 'Bozo' sighed and produced a clipboard from, apparently, nowhere. He scrawled something on the top and asked Lucy “Name?”  
  
“Lucy.”  
  
“ _Full_ name,” 'Bozo' clarified.  
  
“Lucy Ashley?” That was her mother's name before she got married. Lucy could remember that easily enough.  
  
“Age?”  
  
“Seventeen.”  
  
“Blood ty-”  
  
“What the hell is this?” Gajeel demanded, looming over Bozo and jabbing a finger at the top of the form where 'Bozo' had written 3rd Div. “Put her in First Division, not in with that trash!”  
  
“What?” 'Bozo' said. “I can't sign people up to First Division as soon as they walk in. I'm only in charge of Third.”  
  
“Fill it in and I'll sign off on it, then,” Gajeel snapped.  
  
“I'm just a monkey with a pen to you, aren't I?” 'Bozo' said, with a sigh, but obligingly erased the 3rd Div and wrote 1st Div in its place. “Can we get on with it?”  
  
Lucy didn't have an address to give him, but he took down a description of her magic and a list of her keys and her previous guild memberships (not any) and dozens of other details that Lucy didn't see ever being important. By the end, when 'Bozo' handed the form over for her to sign, a crowd of Phantom members had gathered.  
  
“Who's that?”  
  
“Is she new?”  
  
“She's cute! Dibs on the first go!”  
  
Lucy glanced around, laughed nervously and passed 'Bozo' back the enrolment form. He pulled out the stamp.  
  
“Where do you want it?”  
  
There was a chorus of catcalls and whoops from the audience. Lucy ducked her head and held out her arm so that he could stamp it on the back of her hand.  
  
She shouldn't have looked away. Someone grabbed her arms and wrenched them behind her back. “Ow! Hey!” Lucy protested, and tried to stamp on his feet. The man dragged her backwards and off-balance. 'Bozo' rolled his eyes. Gajeel laughed. Another one grabbed her around the knees and lifted her feet from the ground to stop her kicking. Lucy shrieked. “Get off!” Her shoulders felt like they were going to be torn out of their sockets. They were yanking her shirt up to bare her midriff. Lucy struggled and yelled “Let go of me! Stop it!”  
  
'Bozo' stamped the Phantom Lord mark squarely onto her stomach, so that the curl in the tail looped around her navel. The man holding Lucy's arms behind her back let go of her. The man holding her legs didn't. Lucy hit the floor shoulders first and with a yowl like a scalded cat.  
  
“Ow!”  
  
The other man finally let go of her legs. Lucy scrambled up and brushed herself off. They were eager to help, especially with brushing off her butt. Lucy backed away until she ran up into a table. There was a chorus of laughter.  
  
“Oi! Back off, assholes!” a girl barked. “It's my turn to harass the fresh meat.” Lucy spun around. A brown-skinned girl, with short dark hair under a purple jester hat and wearing the most appallingly battered outfit Lucy had ever seen, was sitting on the table behind her, next to a huge heap of scrap metal. “Be good boys and shove off, won't you?” She fixed them with an acidic glare. They shoved off.  
  
“They're only Third Division,” the girl informed Lucy, with contempt. “If you let them pull that crap they'll think they can get away with anything. I'm Sue. Who are you?” She looked Lucy up and down. “This is a guild, you know, not Page Three. Put some pants on, unless you think you'd appreciate those gorillas flipping your skirt up every ten minutes. Slut.”  
  
“What?” Lucy said, and dithered between outrage, confusion and shock for a moment before she settled on confusion. “What do you mean, divisions?” She looked around for a little help. Gajeel had gone to look at the request board.  
  
Sue raised her eyebrows. “Did you not read the brochure? Typical. They never read the brochure.”  
  
“There is no brochure,” 'Bozo' said, sitting down next to her. “Third Division is the subdivision based here. First Division is for the better mages. There's some at every branch. I'm Bozo, by the way.” That was his real name? There was no way that could be his real name.  
  
“The new kids aren't going to learn if you just tell them every-” Sue glanced over Lucy's shoulder and then said, “Red alert, red alert, crankypants incoming!”  
  
Lucy looked around. Gajeel loomed over them.  
  
“Hey, boss,” Sue said. “Did you kick that other guy's ass for him?”  
  
“The sea did,” Gajeel said.  
  
Bozo screwed up his face. “You chucked him in the sea?”  
  
“No, idiot, he got seasick like a baby and as soon as he got off the ship the babysitter arrived,” Gajeel growled. “Fucking trash. The whole thing was a waste of my time.”  
  
“He's supposed to be one of Fairy Tail's best, right?” Sue asked, and sighed. “God, they're pathetic. Kinda makes you want to put them out of their misery. Like a sick dog. What's that?” She pointed at the sheet of paper Gajeel was holding in one hand.  
  
“A mission,” Gajeel said, and handed the poster to Lucy. She read it out loud.  
  
“Guard a magic shop overnight?” Sue raised an eyebrow, and then cranked the other one up to meet it. Lucy frowned at the poster. The reward was twenty thousand jewel. That was enough for a minor silver key. That sounded pretty good for a night of sitting in an empty shop.  
  
“Why are you giving me this?”  
  
“To get you out of my face quicker,” Gajeel barked. “You have to do missions when you're in a guild, princess. You can't just sit on your ass all day.”  
  
Lucy's temper flared. “Fine! I'll take it!” She balled the poster up and shoved it into her bag. Why was he acting like she'd pestered him into letting her join? He was the one who invited her! Without another word she spun around and stormed out of the hall.

* * * 

“Hey, boss,” Sue said to Gajeel, once Lucy was out of the building, “is this the most convoluted murder plan in history or what?”  
  
“She wanted to join Phantom that bad, she may as well find out what she's in for,” Gajeel growled. “Don't interrupt me when I'm eating.”  
  
“You're not eating,” Sue pointed out. Gajeel hauled the pile of scrap metal over to in front of him and picked out an iron gearwheel. Sue took the hint and left.

* * * 

The first thing Lucy did was go to the shop and officially accept the mission from the shopkeeper. He seemed doubtful, but finally she convinced him that she could handle it. After that, she went to find a lettings agency. She needed somewhere to live, right?  
  
The agent showed her around an upstairs flat on a street of blue-painted houses just beneath the guild hall. It had a cosy sitting-room, a little kitchen with a stove and a bathroom that was all shiny blue and white tiles and a deep square bath. The bedroom was almost too small for the massive bed and there wouldn't be much space to put her clothes away, but Lucy bounced on the bed and then decided that wouldn't matter. It was fully-furnished, too. The agent said the last tenant had left in a hurry.  
  
“Uwaaaah!” Lucy said, sprawling back on the bed. “This is really nice... I think it's out of my budget, though...” She wilted a little at that, because this whole flat was the size of her childhood bedroom. “How much is it?”  
  
“Forty-five thousand jewel a month,” the agent said.  
  
Lucy sat bolt upright. “What?”  
  
“Forty-five thousand jewel a month,” the agent repeated.  
  
“Forty-five thousand jewel a month?!” Lucy goggled at him.  
  
“Forty-five thousand jewel a month,” the agent confirmed wearily.  
  
Lucy sketched _45,000_ in the air with one finger. “That much?”  
  
“Yes, that's the number forty-five thousand,” the agent said.  
  
Lucy thought about that, mouth still hanging open, and then a thought struck her. She quailed. “Is it haunted?”  
  
“No. We have no reports of it being haunted,” the agent said.  
  
“What is it, then?”  
  
The agent hesitated for a moment, and then said “Trouble with neighbours. You said you were a mage of Phantom Lord, yes?”  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lucy said, nodding.  
  
“Then it shouldn't bother you,” the agent said firmly.  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lucy said slowly. “But still... forty-five thousand?” Maybe there was something wrong with the taps.  
  
“It's been empty for a while. The landlord is anxious to get someone in,” the agent.  
  
Lucy went to the window, peered out and thought about it. She didn't see any troublesome neighbours standing in the street with their pit bulls or anything like that. It was a little weird that all the houses around had protective glass covers over their flowerbeds, and racks of umbrellas on their porches, and that there were stepping-stones across the street, but maybe Oak Town just got a lot of rain.  
  
“Can I try it for a month?” she asked.  
  
“Absolutely!” the agent said, and just about fell over himself bringing her the documents to sign.  
  
After he'd left Lucy dropped her bag on the couch in the sitting-room, set the alarm clock, fell down on the bed and slept for a few hours. The alarm woke her at six. She yawned, ran a brush through her hair and set out for the shop. As soon as she arrived the shopkeeper handed her the key, told her where the bathroom was and shot out. Lucy wasn't sure what he was doing, but it must be urgent.  
  
She wandered around the shop for while, looking at the things on the shelves. There were shelves and glass cases running down each wall, two long blocks of shelving and two counters at the far end. The owner must get a lot of business, having a branch of Phantom Lord in town. Lucy stooped and peeked under the blocks of shelving. Not enough to bother dusting, though.  
  
The celestial keys were kept in a glass case against one wall. Lucy pressed her nose against the glass and wiped away the condensation of her breath. Crater the cup, Dorado the goldfish, Serpens the snake - eww – and Ursa Minor, the lesser bear – so cute! She would definitely try to get hold of that Ursa Minor if she could.  
  
Lucy poked around the rest of the items for a while. There were bead-sized explosive lacrima, magically-charged wax for sealing letters, all sorts of grades and designs of Gale-Force Reading Glasses (TM), a case full of magical swords, magical cards, Colour-S compacts... nothing that Lucy was interested in, though. She already had her own Gale-Force Reading Glasses (TM) and a Colour-S compact back at her new flat. She slouched up to the counters, fell into one of the chairs, flicked off all the lights except for the lamp over her chair and pulled out a book.  
  
Aaaaaaaah. Lucy would happily take one of these missions every week.  
  
It was an hour and fifteen chapters later when Lucy heard a rustle. She glanced over the top of her book and said “What?” out loud. There was someone standing outside, leaning over the keyhole. Lucy sat up and put the book down. The lock clicked open and in sauntered a girl with blunt-cut orange hair and holes in her jeans. The Phantom symbol was stamped squarely over her breastbone.  
  
“Who are you?” Lucy asked, confused. “I already took this mission. What are you doing here?”  
  
The girl didn't answer, only glanced back to make sure that she had company. Two boys followed her inside.The taller one, who had spiky green hair and was wearing a long dark coat, swept a dismissive gaze over the merchandise and snorted. The shorter one, who was wearing a high-collared pale blue shirt with the Phantom symbol on the chest, kept his eyes on the floor.  
  
“Hey, I'm serious!” Lucy said. “Get out, or-”  
  
The taller boy threw a spear of purple light directly at her head. Lucy screamed and dived flat. The spear flashed over her head and drove itself a foot into the wall. Lucy scrabbled for her keys, her heart pounding in her throat. What were they doing? She was in their own guild! Her keys felt massive and heavy in her hand. She could barely lift it with both hands. The keys were as big as she was. Lucy thought, what's happened? Why are my keys so huge? and then realised that she was the one who'd shrunk. The counters loomed over her like the walls of a chasm.  
  
“Devin, can you dig her out?” the girl asked. Lucy looked up, eyes huge and wide with panic. There was a tall silhouette coming down the aisle towards her. She could barely see. The only light was the lamp she'd had on to read by, and she was well outside the small glow it cast. In the dark, she scuttled across to the other counter and dived behind it. She couldn't see him, but she saw his shadow block out the light and heard his footsteps stop between the two counters. Lucy's heart was pounding so hard he must be able to hear it. There was a jangle as he scooped her keys off the floor. “Hey, Calla! Catch!” Lucy heard her keys thud into someone's palm.  
  
“She's got a lot of gold keys,” the girl observed. “They're the good ones, right?”  
  
“Didn't do her much good, am I right?” the smaller boy asked.  
  
“Shut up, Hyllis,” Calla said.  
  
Lucy fumbled with one of her boots.  
  
“Hey, when you find her, you should make her strip off and dance,” the smaller boy suggested.  
  
“Shut up, Hyllis,” the other two said simultaneously.  
  
The boot came off. Lucy grabbed it with both hands and flung it away from her. It hit the other counter with a crash. Devin spun towards the noise, firing off a dozen needlelike bolts of light from each hand. Lucy shrieked but it was lost in the sound of splintering wood.  
  
“Did you get her?” the girl asked.  
  
“I don't know, I'm looking,” Devin said. He crouched down and started rooting through the mess of broken cabinets. Lucy slid out from her hiding place while his back was turned and looked around wildly. Calla was at the far end, watching Devin. Hyllis was squatting down in the central aisle investigating the bottom shelves. Lucy hesitated. She didn't know if it was safe to run. She thought she could see Devin straightening up – Lucy bolted, racing away from the counter across the open expanse and throwing herself underneath the closest rack of shelving. She sprawled on the floor in the dust, waiting for one of them to shout out.  
  
Devin swore and threw something across the room. Lucy flinched and tried to make herself smaller. “The bitch tricked me!”  
  
“There's a familiar refrain,” Calla snorted.  
  
Devin turned. He was coming back towards her! Lucy scrambled on hands and knees to the edge of the shelving and hauled herself up onto the bottom shelf. She whisked her legs out of sight just as Devin crouched and threw two bolts of purple light under the shelving. There was a boom as they hit the far wall. Wood cracked. Lucy covered her mouth with both hands to stifle a shriek and closed her eyes. Spots danced behind her eyelids. She wanted to scream and flail. Devin swore. Calla laughed.  
  
“Oh, screw you,” Devin snapped.  
  
Was he going to come down the side and find her? Could she move again? How long could she keep scuttling around before they caught her? She couldn't hide forever. She couldn't get out of the shop, either, she couldn't reach the doorhandles. She'd lost her keys. She had her whip, but what good could that do? It was hopeless. She was completely trapped. She was trapped like a rat, like a caged animal, like a ...  
  
...like a holder-type mage in a magic store? Armed like a holder-type mage in a magic store.  
  
Wasn't she armed? Weren't there weapons all around her? There had to be something she could use. She uncurled, reached out with both trembling hands and pulled the nearest thing towards her, into the dim glow of the streetlamps through the front window. It was a Colour-S compact.  
  
Lucy nearly screamed with frustration. There was nothing she could do with this!  
  
Glass shattered. Lucy ducked back down instantly, as if it had been thrown at her.  
  
“Silver keys are still worth something, right?” Calla asked.  
  
“Yeah,” Devin said. “Don't get picky. just because they won't fetch so much as the bimbo's gold ones.”  
  
They were going to sell her keys?  
  
Bimbo?  
  
Hot anger flooded through her. Were these really Phantom Lord mages? Her own guildmates? She hissed between her teeth. She wouldn't let them sell her Celestial Spirits! Lucy uncoiled and turned her face back to the Colour-S compact. There had to be something she could do with it. She hauled the compact open and changed the colour of her clothes and hair to dark grey so only the paler outlines of her limbs showed up against the shadows. It would be better camouflage. It would help.  
  
She tried to clear her mind of the panic and think. Calla had just smashed the cabinet where the gate keys were kept. That meant she was near the front of the shop, on the opposite side. Devin was stomping up and down the central aisle, kicking things off the shelves. “Hyllis, are you even looking for her?” Where was Hyllis, anyway? Was he still in the centre aisle?  
  
“I'm looking!” Hyllis protested, barely ten feet away from her. Lucy jolted like she'd been He was at the end of her aisle, barely ten feet away. He hadn't been talking and she'd completely lost track of him!  
  
She needed to find a weapon. What had she seen earlier, when she was looking around? Explosive lacrima? She didn't really want to blow up the shop, but they were only small. They had been on the far side, where Calla was.  
  
Lucy unclasped her whip from her belt and tied it into a tight knot. When she peeked out again, Hyllis was grumbling under his breath and rooting through a bottom shelf less than six feet away. Lucy waited. She couldn't move unless he was looking away. It's just like playing statues, she told herself. If they see you moving then you lose the game.  
  
Hyllis shoved a pile of canned whirlwinds to the floor with an irritated grunt. “This stuff's crap! It's just normal junk, nobody'd pay enough for-”  
  
“Shut up, Hyllis,” Devin ordered.  
  
Calla snorted. “What are you, stupid? There's valuable stuff in here, you just aren't finding it.” Lucy tried to work out exactly where she was by the sound of her voice. By the cabinets, at the front of the shop? Hyllis straightened up until he could see them both and said heatedly, “I'm looking just as hard as either of you two! If I'm not finding anything-”  
  
Lucy had to move, but she was imagining a hand descending from above, snatching her up and crushing her like an insect as soon as she left her hiding place. This was stupid, she was only scaring herself. She took a deep breath, held it, and then slid off the edge of the shelf and dived back under the shelving.  
  
Hyllis didn't stop talking. He hadn't seen her.  
  
“Oh, shut up,” Devin groaned.  
  
“Hyllis, if you don't shut your mouth and get back to work I'm not letting you help out any more,” Calla snapped. Hyllis subsided into resentful silence. “Devin, have you found the trash yet? I'm not having her getting away and calling the Rune Knights.”  
  
“I'm looking,” Devin snapped, and punctuated it by kicking a box of Light Pens which cascaded onto the floor. Lucy inched up to the edge of the shelving, weighed her whip in her hand and flung it away. It skipped and skidded along the floor and thudded against one of the support posts at the far end. Devin whipped about and flung a glowing bolt towards the sound. The light washed out Lucy's vision. She burst out of cover and raced blindly across the open floor towards the other set of shelving. Her heart hammered and the floor seemed like a vast plain opening up all around her, but Devin's own footfalls covered the sound of hers. Lucy slid into the cover of the other shelf like she was sliding into home base and lay still, breathing hard.  
  
Devin swore. Lucy scrambled further under the shelf.  
  
“I missed her again!”  
  
Calla blew out an exasperated breath and turned around. Lucy lay still and watched her boot tap on the floor. “Hyllis, cancel the spell. You're just making her harder to find.”  
  
“I can't, I dunno where she is.”  
  
Devin snorted.  
  
“Useless,” Calla said. “Devin, take my bag. We'll swap.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You're obviously terrible at this. I'll find her.”  
  
“Push off, papermage, I can do it,” Devin snapped. “I'm going to find her, and then I'm going to tread on her until her insides spew out of her mouth!”  
  
Lucy pulled a disgusted face. Calla turned back to the cabinets without a word. Lucy would have guessed that she was rolling her eyes, though.  
  
Which shelf had those little explosive lacrima been on? She inched down until she thought she was in the right place and slid out quickly while Calla wasn't looking and hauled herself onto a bottom shelf. Nobody saw her. Lucy took a quick look around the shelf and nearly groaned. She'd picked the wrong spot! She was on the shelf with the magical cards. They'd be the same size as she was now! She couldn't use-  
  
Lucy took a deep breath, slit a packet open with her thumbnail and pulled out the top two cards. She shifted to illuminate them in the glow from the street, keeping a wary eye on Calla and ready to freeze if she turned suddenly. Two Light Flashes. Ugh, she was so unlucky!  
  
Lucy crushed that thought. Fine. She could use these.  
  
Calla was inspecting the swords. “How am I supposed to carry these?” she asked. Devin grunted. Lucy crouched as near to the edge of the shelf as she dared, tucked one card under her arm and slowly, carefully slid the other one closer to Calla. She didn't make a sound. Calla turned around anyway.  
  
“Do you think-” She saw Lucy. “Shit! She's right there!” Suddenly there was a sheaf of paper in her hand, and it was unfurling into – Lucy didn't wait to find out. She turned her face away and activated the card. The light flashed red through her eyelids, searing afterimages onto her retina. Calla cried out, the paper falling from her hands. Devin barked out a curse. Lucy moved fast. She raced down the aisle, giving Calla a ringing slap on the calf as she shot past. Calla swore and came after her, stumbling, half-blind. At the top of the aisle, just as one of Calla's boots thudded to thr ground barely inches away from her, Lucy whirled and knocked a stack of cans into the aisle. They fell and clattered and rebounded off each other with a noise like thunder.  
  
Devin spun towards the noise and fired without looking.  
  
Lucy had already thrown herself back under the shelves. One of the bolts hit Calla in the shoulder. The other went straight through her midsection.  
  
Devin screamed. “Calla! No!”  
  
Calla stumbled, eyes wide with surprise, and then crumpled. Devin caught her as she fell and they both went sprawling on the floor. Keys scattered from Calla's open bag. Lucy dived out from under the shelving and grabbed the closest one.  
  
“I am one who opens the path to the celestial sphere! Heed my call and pass through the Gate!” This had to be the fastest she'd ever spoken the incantation; she stumbled over the words but she could still feel the channel opening as the celestial world drew on her magic. “Open! Gate of the Serpent!”  
  
Golden light burst from nowhere and coalesced into a long slender snake. Serpens hissed, drew up its coils and raised its head, ready to strike.  
  
“Can we make a contract later?” Lucy shouted, and pointed at Devin. “Stop him!”  
  
Serpens obeyed instantly. Devin twisted away and threw his arms out wide, trying to shield Calla with his own body. Serpens's jaws closed on his throat. Devin jerked and fell backwards, away from Calla. She was ice-white, and not moving. Devin was still struggling, but only weakly. Serpens let him go and writhed around to face Lucy. At the far end of the shop, Hyllis let out a panicked squawk. He was using his magic. Serpens was already shrinking until it was barely as thick as a pencil. Lucy scooped the snake spirit up, tossed it around her shoulders and ran back towards the door. She still had the second Light Flash card. It dragged along the floor behind her as she ran.  
  
Hyllis was pressed flat up against the door, fumbling to find the handle without turning his back on the room. Lucy skidded to a stop just within the shelter of the shelves. Serpens uncoiled from around her shoulders. She thought it had worked out what she was going to do. Lucy closed her eyes and activated the card. The light flash seared the insides of her eyelids, and Hyllis staggered, hands going to his eyes. Serpens sank its teeth into his leg. Hyllis screamed and staggered, clutching at his leg, and fell. He hit the floor with a crash. The shrinking spells broke. Lucy straightened up, and then up again and further up until she could see over the tops of the shelves again.  
  
“We did it!” Lucy squealed, and held out a palm for a high five. Serpens didn't oblige. After a few moments, Lucy remembered that snakes didn't have hands. So, instead, she retrieved her keys from Calla's bag and couldn't resist twirling them smugly around one finger as she stood over her fallen enemies. Then, because they were bleeding quite a lot, she called the emergency services.  
  
A medic arrived within a few minutes, a squad of soldiers trailing after him. He looked at the three mages crumpled on the ground and groaned. “You could have mentioned there were so many of them...”  
  
“I'm sorry,” Lucy said, leant forward a little and glanced up at him through her eyelashes. He looked at her oddly.  
  
“Have you got something in your eye?”  
  
“...no,” Lucy said, and let him get back to mending the hole in Calla's stomach with what looked like a staple gun. On closer inspection, it was a staple gun. The soldiers loitered, trying to look menacing. The healer tried to grill her on the effects of Serpens's venom. Lucy stared at him blankly, twiddled with her hair and said “I don't... really... know?”  
  
The healer sighed. Lucy suspected that he wasn't impressed.  
  
Once those three had all been stapled up, stuck with needles and carried out, the healer came back and sidled up to Lucy. “Hey,” he said, with a wary glance towards the door. “You know that the Iron Dragon was on the roof, right?”  
  
Lucy blinked, imagining a dragon with shiny metal scales perched atop the building, and then the image flickered and resolved into Gajeel. She yelped and clutched at the medic's shirt. “What's he doing there?”  
  
“I don't know!” the medic protested.  
  
“Is he still there? Did he leave?”  
  
“Yeah, he left!”  
  
“But what was he doing there?”  
  
“I just said I don't know!”  
  
Lucy let go of the medic and tumbled backwards onto the floor with a wail. What was going on? Gajeel wasn't the sort to let those three soften her up. Did he think it would be fun to watch her get her ass kicked? But then wouldn't he just do it himself? Lucy clutched at her hair and wailed “It doesn't make any sense!” He was crazy. Everyone was crazy.  
  
“You're crazy!” the medic said, and left in a rush.  
  
“Uwaaah,” Lucy groaned, and sat up. Serpens coiled slowly across her lap. “What am I going to do?” she asked it. Serpens didn't have a reply. Lucy stroked its back carefully with the tips of her fingers while she thought. The snake spirit wasn't slimy, just cool and dry. She could get to like it. Him. He was six or seven feet long, she guessed, about as thick around as her upper arm, and mottled in red and brown and all shades of ochre.  
  
“All right,” she said. “Do you mind Mondays?”

* * * 

When the shopkeeper came back in the morning, he wasn't pleased. Lucy didn't think that was fair. People had broken in and she'd stopped them; she'd done her job! She'd even cleaned up afterwards! (Even if it was mostly to hide the things she'd taken besides Serpens).  
  
So... it wasn't that she'd meant to be threatening, she hadn't intended to intimidate; it was just that she was tired and he was shouting and all she did was beckon Serpens over. He wound up her leg and around her waist, and the shopkeeper blanched and backed away. It was so easy.  
  
He still didn't pay her, but he stopped making a fuss about her taking Serpens, and it said J40,000 on the tag on his key, so in one sense she'd doubled her pay, hadn't she? On the other hand, Lucy thought as she gave up the last of her money for a breakfast roll on the way home, Serpens couldn't be exchanged for goods and/or services.  
  
Friends were more important than money, though! If that wasn't true she'd never have left home to begin with.  
  
She devoured the roll as she climbed the stairs to her flat, fell into bed and slept for nearly the rest of the day. When she woke up, with the late afternoon sun slanting across her ceiling, she stared up at the light for a long time before she finally groaned and hauled herself out of bed. She didn't want to go into the guild, but what else was she supposed to do?  
  
When she pushed the big front doors open and stepped inside, a wary hand on her keys, heads turned. Glances flicked over her from head to toe. Lucy looked behind her to see if she was in the way of someone more impressive. She wasn't. A piercing whistle rang out. Lucy glanced around, without letting go of her keys. Sue was sitting cross-legged on one of the tables, a paper bag of doughnuts in her lap and two fingers in her mouth. She waved. “Hey! Page Three! Over here!”  
  
Bozo was sitting at the same table as Sue, reading the paper, but when Sue called out he lowered it and glanced at Lucy over his glasses. Gajeel wasn't around. Lucy went over to them, mentally preparing her defense. They'd started it, she'd only been defending herself, she'd even called a healer for them -  
  
“Good job!” Sue said, and saluted her with a doughnut. “I thought they'd do you for sure!”  
  
“What?” Lucy said, astonished. “You knew they were going to jump me?”  
  
“Well, yeah!” Sue said. “Once word got out a newbie'd taken a job like that...” She shrugged. “What else was going to happen?”  
  
“Did Gajeel tell you I beat them?”  
  
“No,” Sue said. “We heard from Ryos.” She indicated the dark-haired twelve-year-old sitting to her right. Lucy'd been wondering what he was doing there.  
  
Ryos looked up with an expression of total panic and said “I didn't hear from Gajeel!”  
  
There was a brief silence.  
  
Sue sighed. “Don't look so scared, we won't tell him you're a terrible liar...Ryos, baby, I love you, but I seriously have no idea why Gajeel hasn't already murdered you. Is that your magic? Are you a dragonslayer slayer?”  
  
Ryos thought about it, and then shook his head.  
  
Sue popped the last chunk of doughnut into her mouth and added to Lucy, spraying crumbs everywhere, “It's cool you took down Calla and Devin, though! And Calla's brother, I dunno what he's called. We heard you put them in the hospital?”  
  
“She did,” Ryos confirmed. Sue clapped.  
  
“What'll happen to them now?” Lucy asked. “I mean, they won't be in the hospital long.”  
  
“I guess they'll get demoted?” Sue licked sugar off her fingers. “Master Jose likes demoting people. Makes them work harder to get back up and scares the rest.”  
  
“That's it?” Lucy said, aghast.  
  
“Yeah! What were you expecting?” Sue shot her a funny look. “Master Jose's not here to sort out your squabbles for you – if you've still got a problem with them, deal with it yourself!”  
  
“It's most likely that they'll come after her themselves once they've recovered,” Bozo pointed out. “Going down to a newbie in a three-on-one fight? If they let that stand they'll practically be laughed out of the guild.”  
  
“I know that! I wasn't going to completely spoon-feed her, I'm not having people thinking I'm soft,” Sue said.  
  
Lucy's head was spinning. “Are... are all guilds like this?”  
  
“Oh, princess,” Sue said, and laughed. Even Ryos was looking at Lucy as if she was an idiot. Bozo laid down his paper.  
  
“You really are new to this, aren't you? All the guilds that're worth anything, yeah.” He glanced at Sue. “Think she got dropped on her head as a baby?”  
  
“Repeatedly bounced head-first off a wall sounds more like it,” Sue said.  
  
“I won't guarantee that you'll survive, though,” Gajeel had said. “Weaklings don't.” So this was what he meant?  
  
Lucy stared around the guild hall. There were dozens of mages sat at the long tables. She didn't know which of them were dangerous, or which of them would try to take her out just for the sake of beating her. Any one of them could be an enemy.  
  
There was no way she was good enough for this.


	3. Making Friends is Hard.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy joins some of her new guildmates on a job fighting the dark guild Eisenwald.

“-I seriously don't see how I can keep her alive,” Lucy said, frowning at Cancer in the mirror.  
  
“Hmm,” Cancer said. He was pretty much done cutting her hair. He had been pretty much done cutting her hair for half an hour now.  
  
“But the only reason I want to keep her alive is because I like her!” Lucy said. “And don't you have to kill people sometimes? Otherwise nobody'll take you seriously!” She sighed and slid down further in her chair. “Killing people is hard... characters. I mean, killing characters is hard.”  
  
“...mmm,” Cancer agreed, with a faint air of desperation. Cancer didn't know much about literature. He was good at cutting hair, arranging flowers and ice hockey. Unfortunately, they had long since exhausted all topics of conversation relating to hair, flowers or ice hockey.  
  
Lucy twiddled a few strands of her hair around her fingers. She'd only had Cancer take a few inches off, anyway, so it didn't look any different. She missed the cute little pigtail on top of her head, but it would just have looked weird once she put her hat on. Lucy thought she already looked weird enough wearing dark pants and a short purple shirt that knotted under her breasts to bare her midriff and guild mark. She _felt_ weird. Her midriff was cute, but what about her legs? Her legs were two of her best features! She sighed heavily and leant forward to rest her elbows on the table.  
  
“Mistress?” Cancer asked.  
  
“I ought to get to the guild,” Lucy said. Lately, sometimes she didn't dismiss her spirits until she absolutely couldn't keep them around, but today she didn't want to be left alone if she needed Cancer. He didn't mind, so Lucy said goodbye and closed his gate. Then she summoned Serpens, wound him around her waist and shoulders, put her hat on and then headed for the guild. Outside the doors, she paused for a moment. She set her mouth into a hard line, schooled her expression into cold confidence and stepped inside.  
  
Right at that moment, something hit the wall over her head. Lucy yelped and dived backwards. Serpens hissed and tightened his coils around her waist. Everyone burst out laughing. Oh God, were they laughing at her? The thing that had smashed into the wall had hit it feet-first; it sprang off the wall, twisted nearly a hundred and eighty degrees to land on its feet and staggered. It was a giant leopard.  
  
What?  
  
Lucy raised a hand to Serpens's reassuring weight around her neck and lifted her gaze. The rest of Phantom Lord had gathered around the walls, to leave an open space for fighting in. In the chaos it took Lucy a moment to figure out what was going on. Two young men were fighting a witchy-looking girl with a staff and a monster. The monster looked like something stitched together out of other animals – a wolf's body, the wings and skinny legs of an eagle and a snake's lashing tail. The young man it was trying to maul was stripped to the waist to bare rough grey skin like a rhino's hide. The wolf-creature's claws skidded off the mage's skin with a noise like nails on a chalkboard, and when it screamed with frustration it sounded like a human in pain. The girl wasn't faring so well. The mage she was facing was small and skinny and half transformed into an ant. Antennae sprouted out of his shaggy brown hair and his eyes had distorted into vast glassy black orbs. His arms had developed another joint and hung nearly to the floor. Below the waist his entire body had transformed into an ant's. He looked like a bug centaur.  
  
“Ew,” Lucy said.  
  
The witchy-looking girl was swinging her staff at the insect mage's six legs, but he was still driving her back. “Flauros!” she shouted. The leopard shook itself and tore across the hall towards her. The insect mage turned to meet it.  
  
“I'll just throw it into the wall again!” he yelled. “As many times as it takes! In this form, I have the strength of an ant!”  
  
“...Proportional strength of an ant, dude,” his partner called. The insect mage ignored that. He reached out to grab hold of the leopard again as it flashed past him, but it was far too quick. Its tail whipped through his fingers and then quite suddenly it was on his back. The insect mage yelled and reached back. His fingers raked uselessly through the leopard's fur. He whirled about, trying to dislodge it. The leopard hissed, dug its claws in and hunkered down.  
  
“Flauros! Just torch the sod!” the witch girl shouted.  
  
“Bad idea,” a green-haired boy with headphones called from the sidelines. The leopard opened its mouth wide, baring a pink tongue and massive fangs.  
  
The insect mage had twisted his head back almost all the way around to see what the leopard was doing. He swore and barked “Insect Soul: Spider!” His body shimmered and shifted. His neck vanished as his head and torso fused together. His legs cracked and popped as they rearranged themselves. “Ew!” Lucy squeaked. The leopard tried to hang on, but as the insect mage's form distorted it was thrown off and sent skidding across the floor. The giant spider skittered away, and Phantom Lord mages scattered to right and left as it began to climb the wall.  
  
Flauros raced to the bottom of the wall, reared up to put its front paws on the stone and roared up at it. The spider was already twenty feet above and climbing higher. The witch girl snarled between her teeth, hefted her staff and flung it like a spear.  
  
The staff struck the insect-mage square in the back of the thorax. He convulsed and fell off the wall. Lucy winced, but the mage twisted as he fell and managed to land on his feet. He skittered across the hall towards the witch girl. She was between the spider and Flauros. She spun and raced back towards the leopard. The spider was hot on her heels, but the witch girl dropped to the ground and skidded across the floor to Flauros's feet. Flauros reared up and landed with both front paws on her back. His mouth yawned open. Lucy just had time to see the pilot light glowing deep in its throat before flames spewed out of its mouth.  
  
The witch girl retrieved her staff and slung it casually across her shoulder. She turned to the armoured-skin mage and the wolf-monster. Smoke hung heavy in the air. The wolf monster was gnawing on the mage's neck, its snake tail lashing wildly as its teeth scraped over his skin without leaving a mark. The armoured-skin mage was trying to get up. The wolf-creature whacked him with a paw. He continued getting up. The wolf-creature headbutted him so hard it staggered. The armoured-skin mage was on his knees now. The wolf creature tackled him to the ground and then sprawled flat on top of him while the armoured-skin mage wheezed under its weight.  
  
“Aww,” Lucy said. “It's trying.”  
  
“Marchosias, out the way,” the witch girl ordered. The wolf creature hauled itself off the armoured-skin mage and stomped aside. He sat up.  
  
“Good defense, low offense?” the witch girl asked conversationally. “Your friend's down for the count, by the way.”  
  
The armoured-skin mage sighed, raised his hands and said “Okay, I give up.”  
  
“Phantom Lord does not accept your surrender,” the witch girl drawled. “Flauros!”  
  
Lucy turned her face away. She heard a shriek, and the roar and the crackle of flames, and saw her shadow thrown stark and black against the wall in the firelight. He must have been new. There was a round of desultory applause. Lucy looked around and spotted Sue – it wasn't hard, since she was one of the few people still sitting at a table. She was reading the paper. Lucy went to join her. As she sat down, Serpens rearranged his coils with a sandpapery rasp and subsided back into somnolence. Lucy stroked his head and asked, “What did they do?”  
  
Sue glanced up. She had a biro behind her ear and her tongue was sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “What did who do?” On one of the paper's crumpled pages Lucy could just see part of a headline: -RY TAIL MAGE DESTROYS -  
  
“The guys that girl was fighting?”  
  
“Eh? No idea. Probably nothing. She's a bit touchy,” Sue said. She noticed Lucy looking at the paper. “Do you want a look? I'm stuck on eight down anyway.” She passed it over and Lucy refolded it until the article on Fairy Tail was on top.

__

FAIRY TAIL MAGE DESTROYS DUKE EVERLUE'S HOUSE, BOOK

On Tuesday afternoon Fairy Tail mage Natsu 'Salamander' Dragneel, age unknown, broke into the home of Duke Everlue, lord of Shirotsume Town, and destroyed one of the books in his library. This was allegedly the result of a request made to his guild rather than sheer impulse. Following the immolation of the volume, two guards and a maid in Duke Everlue's service attempted to prevent Dragneel from leaving, and in the subsequent commotion a large part of the house was destroyed. Neither the book nor the clients who placed the request have been identified. The damage has been estimated as in excess of J300,000,000.  
  
Sources within His Majesty's Revenue Office say that preliminary analysis of the wreckage produced evidence of tax evasion and involvement in smuggling. Duke Everlue has stated that he will not be pressing charges and that the investigation may be halted.  
  
The investigations are continuing.

Lucy nearly giggled. Honestly, that pink-haired kid?  
  
Sue leant forward to read the article upside-down. “What do you think?”  
  
“Idiots,” Lucy said, and handed it back.  
  
“Susannah!” someone called out. The witch girl was standing over them, with the green-haired boy who'd been yelling from the sidelines just behind her.  
  
“Lee!” Sue greeted her, with a smile. Lee looked her up and down disdainfully.  
  
“Ugh - considering you're a mirror mage, couldn't you take a look in one after you get dressed?”  
  
“You're so catty in the mornings,” Sue said, and laughed. “Your freckles look cute today!”  
  
Lee bristled, and Sue quickly changed the subject before she could launch another missile. “You haven't met Lucy yet, have you? New girl.” She jabbed her biro at Lucy. “Lucy Ashley, these are Lee Annur Maudley and Rossa Bilkowitz. They're both summoners as well, you might get on if you can overlook Lee Annur's personality.”  
  
“I'm not a summoner. It's requip magic,” Rossa said.  
  
Lucy looked them over warily. Lee Annur was a tall girl, a year or so older than Lucy herself, with long black hair and nearly-white skin that emphasised the smattering of freckles across her nose. Her smart black pinafore dress, shiny boots and purple blouse with long sleeves and neat little mother-of-pearl buttons at the cuffs made her look as if she had only wandered into the guild by accident, and didn't appreciate finding herself surrounded by all these scruffy thugs. Her lacquered violet nails tapped against the dark wood of the staff she carried.  
  
Rossa was shorter and skinnier, with tousled green hair and a round face that made him look like a kid. Lucy could hear rock music thudding out of his headphones, but other than that there was nothing about him that really attracted attention. Even his dark pants and dull red shirt were the exact same outfit that Bozo and half the other guild members were wearing, minus the fur-trimmed jacket. Maybe he was going out of his way to look unobtrusive and let Lee Annur get all the attention. Or maybe it wasn't significant at all? Just about everybody in Phantom wore the same clothes. Lucy'd even asked Sue about it a few days earlier.  
  
“Oh, they sell those in the guild shop,” Sue'd said vaguely. “They're cheap, so most people buy them.”  
  
Lucy'd looked around the hall. All the men were wearing either Bozo's jacket outfit, or Hyllis's pale blue high-collared shirt, or a tight shirt with gems around the collar. “Doesn't it get boring?”  
  
Sue looked around as if that hadn't really occurred to her before. “Wow, you ask weird questions. It's just to fit in. What's wrong with that?” She pushed her jester hat back a little off her forehead.  
  
“Nothing,” Lucy said, and paid a visit to the guild shop after she was done eating. They hadn't had any girls' clothes for sale, so she'd bought a green jester hat like Sue's instead. She wanted to fit in, didn't she?  
  
While Lucy had been sizing the other two mages up, they'd been doing the same to her. Lee Annur examined Serpens, who was still mostly wound around Lucy, and asked, “Is that one of your summons, or just a pet?”  
  
“Oh, he's one of my spirits!” Lucy said. “This is Serpens. I only got him about a week ago.”  
  
“Oh, stellar spirits,” Lee Annur said. She sounded a little dismissive. “How many units have you got all together, then?”  
  
“Seven. Four silver, three gold,” Lucy said. Lee Annur's eyes went a little wide. Ha! Dismiss that!  
  
“Three gold keys? You're joking, right?”  
  
“Maybe they're silver keys she spray-painted,” Sue said. In answer, Lucy held up her keyring and turned it so the gold keys reflected the sunlight.  
  
“Impressive,” Lee Annur said. Wait. Was that good or bad? Should Lucy not have mentioned her gold keys? Should she have kept that back so they wouldn't know everything she could call on? Sue was looking at her like she thought she was giving away too much information. Aaaah! “Where'd you get those?”  
  
Lucy at least wasn't silly enough to say 'inherited' or 'bought him with my pocket money'. Instead she just grinned and said “From other people. How about you?” Lee Annur didn't have a keyring, only a staff of twisted black wood, with half a dozen charms that looked like they were made of bone hanging from a ring at the top. Lucy didn't know anything that was summoned through bone charms.  
  
“I summon demons. I've got six units so far,” Lee Annur said.  
  
“Demons?!” Lucy squeaked. Sue laughed.  
  
“Why does everyone always do that?” Lee Annur asked the ceiling.  
  
“You love it. Don't lie,” Rossa said, and added to Lucy, “Goetian demons, to be precise. Not the things Zeref made, or chthonians, because she isn't insane, and not the hybrid race, because they're not particularly useful... Demonology is an inexact science.”  
  
“How does it work?” Lucy asked.  
  
Lee Annur grinned. “You think I tell everyone my secrets?” She flicked one of the bone charms with a fingertip. “Hey, Rossa and I were about to head out on a mission. Do you want to come?”  
  
Lucy blinked. “Really?”  
  
“No, stupid, I was asking for a joke. Yeah, really,” Lee Annur said.  
  
Lucy thought about it and twiddled with her keys. They might be planning to jump her, but-  
  
“What are you planning?”  
  
“You know the dark guild Eisenwald?” Lucy didn't, but she nodded anyway. “Well, we don't know what they're up to, and we don't especially care,” Lee Annur said briskly, as Rossa produced a mission poster, “but there's been some sort of schism and the losers are making pests of themselves. A squad came into our territory between Araucaria Town and Myrsine Village about a week ago. A team from Fifteenth tried to stop them and got pummelled, naturally, but I expect we can do better.” She jabbed the mission poster, which showed four indistinct silhouettes. “Four of them, standard one hundred thousand bounty for grunts, so about one hundred and thirty-three thousand for each of us. Are you in?”  
  
Lucy knew she might end up regretting it, but they would need another person if they were going after a group of four, weren't they? She could always run for it if they turned on her.  
  
“I'm in!” she said.

* * * 

“They're using some sort of concealment spell, but that's exactly what we want them to do,” Lee Annur had told them smugly outside, and slammed the foot of her staff against the ground. “I charge thee, Purson, by pact sworn and blood spilt; arise!” There was the flash of a magic circle opening, and a blast of smoke and hot, sulphur-smelling air that blew Lucy's hair around her face.  
  
“You don't have to be all dramatic about it just because there's another summoner here,” Rossa said, unimpressed. Lee Annur blew a raspberry at him.  
  
When the smoke cleared, it revealed a hunched figure with the head of a lion and a coat of coarse yellow fur under its ragged tunic. When the demon roared, its mouth yawned open as if its jaw was unhinging and the noise reverberated through Lucy's bones. She quailed. “Purson specialises in finding things that are hidden,” Lee Annur said. “Now all we have to do is follow him!”  
  
They caught up with the Eisenwalders late in the afternoon, in a broad dry canyon of dusty yellow stone. Lee Annur had summoned a demon called Decarabia that looked like a massive bird made of steel and brass and taken to the sky on its back. She and Decarabia were wheeling overhead now, in a tight circle. Rossa and Lucy had been cruising slowly down the canyon on Rossa's SE-plug moped, but they stopped as soon as Lucy reported what Lee Annur was doing. They dismounted, propped the moped against the canyon wall and crept down to take a look.  
  
The four criminal mages were sitting around a campfire. Lucy and Rossa peered out at them from the shelter of a rocky overhang. They were all men. One, with shaggy white hair and a massive sword slung across his back, was making emphatic hand gestures as he spoke and the others were watching him. Another had spiky purple hair and a goatee; he was poking at the fire with a stick while he listened. The third threw up his hands and sprawled back on the ground as Lucy watched him; he looked like the youngest, unless he was just shorter than the other three, and wore a tank top and khaki combat pants. The last man wore baggy clothes and a green scarf tied across his face, so that his eyes and forehead were the only skin exposed. There was a weapon like a mace head on a long chain wound around his waist.  
  
“Should we wait to see what-” Lucy started, but Lee Annur swooped straight in, shouting.  
  
“Marchosias, arise!”  
  
There was another blast of smoke and Lucy couldn't see what was happening, but when it cleared Decarabia was fighting its way back into the sky and Lee Annur was on her feet with Marchosias standing in front of her.  
  
The white-haired Eisenwalder was the first to react. He leapt to his feet, drawing his sword as he did. The blade was strangely orange, and it smoked. Rossa took off towards them at a sprint, and after a moment of hesitation Lucy followed, fumbling for her keys as she ran. “Open! Gate of the Bull!”  
  
There was a flash of light as Taurus appeared. “Miss Lucy! Your body looks-”  
  
He didn't get the chance to finish. Lucy saw a shadow pass overhead, and then Taurus snatched her up and yanked her out of the way just as one of Decarabia's wings sliced through the space where she had been standing. Lucy gasped, but it was drowned in the crash as Decarabia ploughed into the cliff face. The Eisenwalder in the tank top had been lying almost directly underneath; he shrieked and barely got out of the way before the massive bird demon collapsed to the ground. Hot sparks and cinders from the campfire went flying. Lee Annur cried out in surprise. “Decarabia! What the hell?”  
  
“Lee Annur! Banish it!” Rossa shouted. Lee Annur couldn't, or didn't have time as Chain Hammer whirled his mace around his head and lashed out at her. Lee Annur ducked behind Decarabia's outspread wings, and the demon took the force of the blows. Metal plates cratered. Gears shrieked. Decarabia vanished back to the demonic realms in a puff of sulphurous smoke, leaving Lee Annur unshielded, but she was already summoning another demon.  
  
“Flauros! Arise!”  
  
The Eisenwalder in the tank top had a sword as well, but it had been trapped under Decarabia. He snatched it up and dived away as Flauros opened his mouth and blasted fire at him. The light left brilliant green afterimages in Lucy's eyes. Rossa had called up a golem made from the skeleton of a gorilla, or a forest troll, or any massive creature with arms that reached nearly to the ground. Lucy caught glimpses of the There was so much happening that Lucy could barely follow it. She didn't know what to do! What could she do?  
  
“Taurus!” she screamed. “Take out the one with the white hair!” He'd been talking and they'd all been listening; he had to be the leader, right? Taurus dropped Lucy, hefted his axe and charged at the swordsmage. Halfway there, his axe jerked to one side and dragged him off his feet. Lucy was hurriedly uncoiling her whip, but she goggled. “Taurus! What's going on?” Decarabia's metal body, Taurus's steel axe – which of the Eisenwalders was a metal mage?  
  
Then the Eisenwalder in the tank top swung a sword at her. It was a heavy, two-handed overhand blow. Lucy shrieked but managed to catch it on her whip, doubled up and held between her two fists. The sword bit leather threads from the edge of her whip, but the enhanced durability enchantments held.  
  
Tank Top bore down, trying to saw through it. Lucy kicked him in the midsection. He staggered back, gasping. At least the metal mage couldn't be him, Lucy thought grimly, uncoiling her whip and cracking it across his shins. He staggered again. It wasn't the swordsmage, either, and the one with the chain hammer was busy with Lee Annur's demon Marchosias. That left – she risked a quick glance up and found that the last one was standing well back, gesturing as Taurus's axe slid over the ground.  
  
“Taurus! It's the one with the goatee!” Lucy screamed over the noise and the clash of metal on bone. Taurus heard, but her moment of inattention cost her. Tank Top slashed at her ribcage and Lucy had to stumble back to avoid the blow. Taurus was struggling to recapture his own axe. “Just punch him!” Lucy yelled. Taurus obeyed. The Eisenwalder with the goatee raised his hands in front of his face in an attempt at defense, but it was futile. Taurus's fist slammed into him like a freight train, throwing him right off his feet and cartwheeling into the canyon wall. Lucy didn't get a chance to congratulate him before Taurus had snatched up his axe again and closed with the swordsmage. Every blow of the Eisenwalder's sword sparked small explosions that flashed like a strobe light in the corner of Lucy's vision, and smoke curled from the shaft of Taurus's axe every time he blocked, but Lucy couldn't help him. Tank Top was driving her back now; he'd got her on the defensive and she couldn't find a chance to attack between warding off his blows. Lee Annur and Rossa were both standing safely out of the way, with Flauros and an ostrich-skeleton golem standing defensively in front of them. It was good that they could field multiple summons at once, but not so much if one of them had to be tied up with protecting-  
  
Then Rossa's troll golem grabbed Tank Top by the leg, swung him overhead and smashed him into the ground. He lay still. Lucy felt very ungrateful.  
  
But only for a moment, because then she heard a whistle overhead and glanced up. The Eisenwalder with the chain hammer was swinging it straight down towards her head. Lucy scrabbled to one side and the hammer head slammed into the ground beside her. The rock cratered. Lucy was showered in dust. She couldn't keep up with this. When had that guy beaten Marchosias?  
  
The Eisenwalder yanked the chain hammer back and spun it about his head so fast it was a blur, preparing for a strike that would shatter bone. Lucy swung her whip back. They both lashed out at the same moment. Lucy's whip tangled in the chain. Lucy was yanked off her feet and dragged across the canyon floor. The rocky ground scraped the skin on her knees and elbows and bare stomach raw. Lucy screamed and let go of the whip. The handle skittered across the ground away from her. Overhead, the solid iron head of the mace glittered as it sliced down towards her. Lucy shrieked again and threw up her hands.  
  
The troll golem saved her. The chain wrapped around its arm and snapped taut. The golem grasped the chain in both hands and began to reel the Eisenwalder in. The Eisenwalder flickered and cut out like a bad connection on a communications lacrima. The chain hammer vanished. “What the hell?” Lucy gasped. It was a duplicate? Where was the real one? She cast a hunted look around. There was still one of them fighting Marchosias, and another one – oh no! - another one was taking a swing at her legs. Lucy shrieked and jumped in the air. The chain hammer whistled by under her feet.  
  
“Miss Lucy!” Taurus dropped his defense and swung his axe wildly at the swordsmage so that the Eisenwalder had to lurch off-balance to parry it. Before the swordsmage could strike at him again Taurus spun about and raced to Lucy's side. When Chain Hammer lashed out again Taurus snatched the chain out of the air. The swordsmage had pursued him, though, and was swinging his sword directly at Taurus's unprotected back. Lucy shouted a warning and threw herself forward as if to put herself between Taurus and the swordsmage, but she needn't have bothered. The troll golem pivoted about and caught the slash on its forearm. The heat and the force of the explosion shivered through the golem's empty bones but didn't harm it.  
  
“Ashley!” Rossa shouted. Lucy only realised after a moment that this was aimed at her, and a reprimand. “Do you mind not playing Enemy Musical Chairs in the middle of a fight?”  
  
The troll golem turned its hands palm up, revealing razor-edged steel claws. The swordsmage took a step back.  
  
Taurus rumbled out a laugh. He was still hanging onto the hammer's chain. Chain Hammer tried to tug it free of his grip, but Taurus was so much bigger and stronger that it was no use. Chain Hammer gripped the chain with both hands and leant back, bracing both feet solidly against the rock floor. Another duplicate, hazy and flickering, stepped out of his body. How many of them could he produce?  
  
What could she do? Lucy fumbled for her keys. “Open! Gate of the Clock!”  
  
Horologium appeared in a flash of light. The strain of summoning two spirits at the same time hit immediately. There was no way she could keep this up for long! There was no point trying this on any of the Chain Hammers when she didn't know which one was the original, but if the troll golem could help - Lucy pointed at the Swordsmage and shouted, “Catch him!”  
  
Horologium moved, sweeping smoothly around the troll golem, and at that exact moment Tank Top stumbled dizzily into the Swordsmage from behind, shoving him away. Tank Top was sucked into Horologium's inner compartment with a pop. Lucy wailed. The Swordsmage fell forwards, into Rossa's golem and the blade of his own sword. The explosion knocked him back off his feet. The golem shook it off. Lucy's wail changed instantly into a whoop of glee. Tank Top was hammering on Horologium's glass panel. He didn't have the space to swing his sword. “Ass! …he says,” Horologium reported.  
  
Lucy spun away from that and saw Flauros. Its mouth was open to breathe out fire. It was aiming straight at Horologium! What was Lee Annur doing? Lucy squawked and grabbed for her keys. “Gate of the Clock! Close!”  
  
Horologium vanished. Tank Top dropped back to the ground, scrambled up to his feet. Flauros breathed out a jet of fire. Tank Top jumped. He jumped high, twenty feet or more, easily clearing the fireblast and sailing over Flauros as Lucy gaped up at him. He landed behind Rossa, and brought his sword down hard. Blood sprayed. Rossa fell forwards. His bone golems crumpled to the ground. Lee Annur keened like a demon herself. “Marchosias! Kill him!”  
  
Marchosias shot across the canyon and hit the Eisenwalders in the chest like a cannonball. He was knocked backwards; Marchosias buried its teeth in his neck, shook him like a rag doll and threw him away across the canyon. Lee Annur pelted over to Rossa and dropped to her knees by his side. Flauros was close behind her, ready to leap to her defense. Lucy and Taurus were alone, against the swordsmage, Chain Hammer and his new duplicate.  
  
Taurus reached out with one hand, grabbed Lucy by the wrist and pulled her behind him.  
  
“Flauros!” Lee Annur shouted. “Hose everything!”  
  
Lucy screamed. “Gate of the Bull! Close!” Taurus didn't let the gate close. Lucy hit the ground as Flauros' mouth yawned open impossibly wide. “Taurus! I'll be fine! Go!” She scrambled behind a boulder for cover. Taurus dissolved into starlight. Flauros exhaled the inferno. Lucy pressed herself flat against the rocky floor and screwed her eyes shut. Furnace heat rolled over her, stinging sweat from her palms and forehead. Firelight blazed red through her eyelids. She couldn't breathe. The air burned in her throat. It seemed like an eternity before the demon let up and Lucy could gasp in superheated, smoky air that felt like a drink of cool water. She forced her streaming eyes open. She couldn't make out any of the Eisenwalders. Were they gone? A shadow loomed over her. Lucy couldn't recognise it with her vision blurred by tears, but -  
  
“What the hell were you thinking?” Lee Annur screamed, and kicked her viciously hard in the stomach. Lucy doubled over, wheezing. “Flauros could easily have got him through your stupid clock thing!”  
  
“What?” Lucy protested. Light dawned. Hot fury welled up in her throat. “You mean you were trying to fry Horologium?!”  
  
“They're immortal! Are you completely stupid? That wouldn't have killed it!” Lee Annur brought her staff down across Lucy's back, slamming her into the ground with a choked cry. “Rossa saved your worthless ass and you let him get jumped on!” Lee Annur was screaming at the top of her lungs, so loudly the words must have torn at the lining of her throat. “You don't deserve to be in first division! You don't even deserve to be in this guild!” Lee Annur's face was flushed a hectic red across her cheekbones. She was almost incandescent with rage. Lucy shrank back. “I'm sorry-”  
  
“You're sorry?” Lee Annur repeated incredulously. “I don't care if you're sorry!” She hit Lucy again, spun on her heel and stormed back to Rossa. Lucy uncurled slowly from her protective huddle.  
  
“Get over here,” Lee Annur barked, without looking back at her.  
  
Lucy obeyed without daring to say a word. Lee Annur had hauled Rossa to his feet and slung his arm across her shoulders. His head hung down. His headphones were shattered and blood was seeping into his hair. Lucy didn't think he was conscious. Lee Annur gestured sharply for Lucy to get on the moped and then leant Rossa carefully against her back. He shifted, and tried to lift his head. “Annie?” His voice was thin. “My head hurts.”  
  
Lee Annur stooped over him, one hand on his shoulder, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Her voice went soft. “It's all right. Just hang on to this idiot and I'll look after you.”  
  
“Stars,” Rossa whispered. “Annie, look at the stars, they're... like little birds, on fire...”  
  
“Oh God,” Lee Annur said, and straightened up. “If you let him fall I'll kill you,” she told Lucy, deadly quiet. “I swear it, I will kill you. And I'll get away with it, because I'll say it was the Eisenwalders. Understood?”  
  
Lucy swallowed. “U-understood...”  
  
Lee Annur snapped her fingers at Marchosias, who padded to her side. She swung up onto his back. If there had been space to take Rossa on Marchosias's back as well, Lucy was sure that Lee Annur would have done that and left her behind.  
  
“Stay close!” Lee Annur ordered, kicked her heels into Marchosias's sides and took off. What followed were some of the worst twenty minutes of Lucy's life. Her palms were sweating so hard she could barely hang onto the handlebars. The moped lurched into every corner, so that Rossa slid about helplessly behind her back, and it sapped off any trace of energy she had left through the SE-plug wristband. When they finally arrived in a small village that Lee Annur said was called Valerian Hill, Lucy was in nearly as bad a state as Rossa.  
  
“Move your ass!” Lee Annur snapped. She hauled Rossa off the back of the moped and half-carried him into a longhouse. Lucy let the moped fall to the ground and tottered after them. It was a Phantom Lord subdivision hall – they had the ubiquitous benches and tables and men drinking, and a flag hung up over the bar. Conversation ground to a halt as they burst in.  
  
“Hey! Who's first division?” Lee Annur raked her gaze over the men. “None of you? Ugh. One of you get me a healer.”  
  
The men hesitated.  
  
“Did I stutter?” Lee Annur demanded. “A healer! Now!” Her voice cracked like a whip. Lucy flinched. The subdivisioners looked as if they wanted to kick her ass instead, and only weren't because they didn't rely on their guildmates to have their back. Instead they did as they were told.  
  
The local healer, a short woman with wine-red hair and wearing a smart white tunic, arrived quickly. She directed Lee Annur and Rossa upstairs to a small attic apartment - “This is the division commander's, but he's on a mission at the moment, so who cares?” Lucy followed them, mostly to avoid staying downstairs. Being caught between a crowd of irritated subdivisioners and Lee Annur alight with rage was uncomfortable to say the least.  
  
The healer inspected the wound in Rossa's head – he'd passed out again – and said “There's not much skull damage. The concussion I can fix, but you'll need to keep an eye on him for a couple of hours. The rest just needs stapling back together.”  
  
She proceeded to do just that. Lee Annur sat at the foot of the bed. The healer tried to make her get off, but this proved impossible. Lucy stood with her back against the door and quailed under Lee Annur's baleful glare.  
  
Halfway through, Rossa opened his eyes and said “Lee Annur, did you set some little birds on fire? I have this strange feeling that you set some little birds on fire.”  
  
“No,” Lee Annur said. “Do you want me to? I will if it'll make you feel better!”  
  
“Oh God. No,” Rossa said, and shut his eyes firmly. Lee Annur took this as a good sign.  
  
The moment that the healer was done, she packed up, ordered Rossa to stay on the bed for a few more hours, and got the hell out of the Phantom Lord building. Lee Annur flopped down on the bed next to Rossa and said, “So, anyway, we're going to kick seven different kinds of hell out of those pieces of shit. But first we kind of need a better plan.”  
  
“You? Plan?” Rossa said. “Who are you and what have you done with my partner?” Lee Annur thumped him on the arm and turned to Lucy. Her voice hardened.  
  
“Are you going to be some use this time? Seriously, I have no idea how you got those keys, but you've clearly got no idea how to use them.”  
  
Lucy nodded meekly.  
  
“What happened?” Rossa asked.  
  
“The one who got you? She had him trapped in a clock thing and then let him out because she was worried that Flauros might damage her clock.” Lee Annur's voice dripped with scorn.  
  
“Ow,” Rossa said, and pulled a face. “Ashley, come on, they're immortal. I'd tear into you harder but I'm guessing Lee Annur did that for both of us.” Lucy ducked her head. Rossa switched his attention back to Lee Annur. “So, what do you think?”  
  
“I still don't want to rely on Ashley any more than we have to,” Lee Annur said, as if Lucy wasn't even in the room. “Your golems were shaping up well against the one with the explodosword. Flauros and Marchosias did okay.”  
  
“What about the other ones?”  
  
“Agares isn't much use unless they run, and Haagenti isn't much use ever except as a meat shield. I don't know if Decarabia'll be functional again by the time we-”  
  
This conversation was making Lucy feel awful. She slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her. She went into the kitchen, sat down and rested her head on the table. She sat like that for a long while. Finally she reached for her keys.  
  
“Open. Gate of the Southern Cross. ...Hi, Grandpa Crux. Would you be able to find something out for me about-” What was it Rossa'd called them? “Goetian demons?”  
  
Grandpa Crux waited a moment for her to explain, but Lucy didn't really want to go into the details. “I can do my best,” he said eventually.  
  
“That's great, Grandpa! Agares and Haagenti. What do they do?”  
  
Crux closed its eyes and started scanning. Lucy made herself a cup of tea. It took longer for Grandpa Crux to dig up the information than it did when he was searching for something about the stellar spirit world, nearly fifteen minutes. Finally he opened his eyes again.  
  
“Ah-hmmmm. It seems that Haagenti is a demon of the presidential rank-” Lucy didn't know what that meant. “- and takes the form of either a bull or a man, and he has the power to transform wine into water and vice versa, and so make the drunk sober and the sober drunk. This is a presence effect, however, and targets anyone within fifty or sixty feet. Agares is a type of demon of the ducal rank which generally manifests as a crocodile. They have the ability to make those who stand still run and those who run stand still.”  
  
“What?” Lucy scratched at the back of her head. “Demons have really weird magic.”  
  
Grandpa Crux had fallen asleep, though. Lucy thought, and then smiled uncertainly and closed Grandpa Crux's gate. She went back to the bedroom, slipped in and closed the door quietly behind her. Lee Annur broke off midsentence and looked up, scowling.  
  
“I had an idea,” Lucy said.


	4. Making Friends is Hard II

“I can't believe you snooped on my demons,” Lee Annur grumbled. “Wha – who even does that?”  
  
Rossa caught at her shoulder, stumbled, and papped her on the mouth. “Shush, shush-”  
  
Lee Annur shook him off. “That's just rude,” she said. “And I don't like following her plan anyway. You have dumb plans.”  
  
“Wait,” Lucy said. “I dunno what's going on. Which of us are you talking to now?”  
  
Rossa laughed. Lee Annur glared at him. Rossa laughed harder. “You know what, what... the thing you should do? You should have a mud fight!”  
  
“No,” Lee Annur said loftily, and then tripped and had to hang on to Rossa to stay up.  
  
“No!” Lucy protested, more loudly. “What kind of vurp - perf – prevard thinks about that anyway?” She aimed a smack at Rossa, missed, and fell down. “Ow!”  
  
Lee Annur laughed. Rossa helped Lucy up. Ahead of them, Purson padded silently down the road. Its head swung back and forth. Its nostrils flared.  
  
“We should have brought a picnic,” Rossa said. “With sandwiches and salad and rolls and hors d'ouevrerere. Ererere. ...I forgot how you stop saying that word.”  
  
“Oh God, don't talk about food,” Lee Annur groaned.  
  
The three of them were currently stumbling across a field of gorse and heather. They were also all completely hammered. This was a vital element of Plan B. (Plan C, according to Rossa, involved more alcohol, and icecream.)  
  
Purson stopped. It lifted its head, turned to face a little copse of scrubby trees, and growled low in its throat.  
  
“Purson? What is it, boy? What is it? Is Little Timmy in the well again?” Lee Annur asked him. “Well, Little Timmy can go ahead and drown. I'm sick of that kid's dramatics.”  
  
Rossa let out a loud snort of laughter, and in answer someone emerged from between the trees. The Swordsmage stared at the three of them, turned, and yelled back into the trees.  
  
“Oh my God! They found us!” Lucy said. “We're in – we're in all the – Rossa, I forgot what we're in.”  
  
“Deep shit,” Rossa said.  
  
“Wait, I got this,” Lee Annur said. She was leaning on her staff to keep her balance. “Arise! Haagenti!”  
  
Sobriety hit them like an ice-water tsunami. Lucy blinked. Lee Annur recovered fastest.  
  
“Forward!” she shouted, and Haagenti charged at the copse of trees. Lucy could see the moment the Eisenwalders were within range of Haagenti's magic; the Swordsmage staggered, and clutched his sword in both hands rather than just one as if it had grown heavier. The blurred arc of Chain Hammer's mace faltered and he had to duck to avoid his own weapon whacking him in the head.  
  
Rossa spread out both hands, palms down. Deep green magical circles opened up under each hand as he called up his two bone golems. The troll golem closed with the Swordsmage, and the ostrich golem lunged for Tank Top as he stumbled out of the trees. His arms and shoulders were swathed in bandages. The ostrich danced around him, its tiny skull darting in to nip at his arms and legs; it did little damage, but with his injuries it was quicker than he was and every time he spun to face it the golem was already behind him.  
  
Lucy gripped Cancer's key tight. “Open! Gate of the Crab!” Cancer appeared, scissors at the ready. “Cancer! Get the one with the chain mace!”  
  
Cancer blurred, and almost instantly the chain of the meteor hammer was in a dozen pieces and the mace head went flying. Chain Hammer spawned a duplicate, though, and then while Cancer was slicing up the second one's weapon he spawned another and another and another until Cancer could barely avoid the whirling balls of iron.  
  
Lucy unclasped her whip from her belt and dived headlong into the fray. Chain Hammer – any of them - favoured vicious overhead blows and swinging their maces in a wide circle around their heads; there was no way Cancer could get close enough for his usual tactic. Lucy struck low. Her whip cracked against the backs of one of the Chain Hammers' legs. He jolted, his knees gave way and he fell. Another one stepped over him and turned to her. His chain mace was a silvery blur. Lucy swung her whip back, ready to strike, and then she was dragged off her feet and thrown face-first into the ground.  
  
Lucy's first thought was that her whip had tangled in one of the chain maces. She let go of the handle and tried to scramble to her feet again. She couldn't; she could only claw helplessly at the ground and dig grooves in the soil with her heels. She was pinned to the dirt by the buckle of her own belt and the keyring that hung on it.  
  
What was going on? Lee Annur was supposed to have taken the metal mage out quickly with Marchosias! Lucy threw her head back and caught a glimpse of Lee Annur. She was standing back with Rossa, guarded by Flauros and smiling wickedly as she watched Lucy struggle. Hot anger twisted in Lucy's belly. She yanked at her belt buckle. It was big and solid, meant to look tough, and she couldn't get it - Lucy screamed and threw herself aside.  
  
The chain mace smashed into the ground behind her, barely a hand's width from her back; it threw up a shower of dirt and the clean green smell of crushed heather. Lucy rolled back over the mace head, trapping it under her body. Chain Hammer tried to jerk it free. Lucy gritted her teeth as the spikes dug into her ribcage and yanked frantically at her belt.  
  
There was a peal of sudden and unexpected laughter from Chain Hammer. “I can't get it out! She's too heavy!”  
  
What?  
  
“Bitch, how much do you _eat_?” Goatee shouted, and dissolved into tipsy giggles.  
  
 _What?_  
  
Her belt buckle came free. Lucy snatched up her whip, catapulted back to her feet, and stamped her boot down on the chain of the mace. She was going to kill both of them for that! She swung her whip back and lashed out at Goatee. The Eisenwalder spun away, raising both arms to cover his head, and pulled one of the Chain Hammers into the way by his own chain. The Chain Hammer yelled as his chain tightened around his arms, and again when Lucy's whip cracked against his back once, twice, three times, and went down in a heap. The other Chain Hammers disintegrated.  
  
“Idiot!” the Swordsmage roared. “That was the original!”  
  
“Sorry! They're really hard to keep track of!” Goatee called back, and grinned. He was still wearing the same stupid grin when Cancer took him down, and he fell forward into the heather, minus his goatee and, in fact, all the hair on his head.  
  
Lucy snatched up her keys again. “Great job, Cancer! Close, Gate of the Crab!” Cancer vanished. Lucy flipped the keyring expertly in her hand. “Open, Gate of the Bull!”  
  
Taurus appeared, swinging his axe above his head and bellowing. “Miss Lucy! Nice jugs!” The shout rang out across the vast emptiness of the moor. There was sudden total silence, save for the wind in the heather.  
  
“I don't ask him to say that!” Lucy yelled. “Perverted cow!” She shook her fist at Taurus.  
  
“See, that's why I banned my summons from talking. That exact crap,” Lee Annur said to Rossa. Her voice was thick with contempt.They were never going to take her seriously at this rate! Lucy balled her hands into fists. They'd laugh, they'd say she was useless, she couldn't handle her own spirits. They'd think she was weak, an easy target, an easy victim... why was everything going so _badly?_  
  
Then Tank Top jumped. He shot up into the air as if he was fired from a rocket, leaving the ostrich golem far below. Lee Annur grinned and swung her staff around. “Marchosias, begone! Decarabia, arise!”  
  
Lucy hadn't considered that Lee Annur would summon Decarabia. Wasn't he still injured? He was – but not so badly injured that he couldn't plough straight into Tank Top and knock him out of the sky. They both hit the ground with a crash and skidded, coming to rest at the end of a deep furrow in the earth. Lucy winced. Lee Annur laughed.  
  
“Decarabia, begone! Marchosias, arise!”  
  
The Swordsmage was the only one left now. When he saw his guildmates lying unconscious on the ground, he tried to run, but before he had gone more than a few paces the ostrich golem blocked his path. The Swordsmage swore, swung, and caught it right in the neck. The explosion shattered the ostrich golem's thin vertebrae. Its head went flying.  
  
“Oh, balls,” Rossa said.  
  
“Ashley! Are you going to do something?” Lee Annur yelled.  
  
“Taurus!” Lucy shouted. “Grab him!”  
  
Taurus dropped his axe and caught the Swordsmage by both arms so that he couldn't swing his sword. The Eisenwalder spat curses and kicked. Taurus didn't even seem to notice. He lifted his head.  
  
“Miss Lucy?”  
  
Lucy knew exactly what was about to happen. She knew she should reach for her keys and dismiss him.  
  
“Flauros!” Lee Annur shouted. “Blast them!” Taurus looked up in surprise, and then the flames roared over him. Lucy turned away and covered her eyes, though she was too far away to feel the heat.  
  
Taurus burst into starlight and returned to the stellar spirit world. The Swordsmage fell into the heather. His clothes were still smouldering. His skin was black and charred. Smoke curled out of his mouth. Lucy fell backwards, and then just sat there.  
  
“Hi, douchebag!” Rossa greeted him, and then stooped and pressed one hand against the Swordsmage's right arm. The Swordsmage screamed. His back arched and he hit out with his left arm, but Rossa had already stepped back. The arm Rossa had touched lay limply on the ground.  
  
“Turned some of his bones into dust,” Rossa said, matter-of-factly. “Just a little extra _fuck you_. If anyone asks that was a vital part of taking them down, all right?” Lee Annur laughed. Rossa went to examine his ostrich. “That's half a dozen vertebrae smashed. You summoners, you've got it easy.”  
  
“Serves you right for having a creepy skeleton fetish!” Lee Annur chirped.  
  
“Which is so much worse than having a creepy demon fetish?” Rossa picked up the skull and inspected it for damage. “That's a thousand jewel just for the shipping. Would you be a darling and do something highly illegal so I can turn you in?”  
  
“Babe, it's illegal just to look this good,” Lee Annur drawled, mimicking some pop idol.  
  
Lucy sat and stared at the space where Taurus had been, and saw a grassy meadow two years before. Hadn't he sworn that he would always protect her (and her breasts)? Had she really just let him be... Lucy's head spun. She could barely breathe. Her mother would so ashamed if she knew! Lucy clutched at her hair. It wasn't her fault. She couldn't have known what – no, that was just making excuses! She'd known exactly what Lee Annur was planning!  
  
“Hey, Ashley,” Rossa said. “Problem?”  
  
Lucy looked up. Lee Annur was watching her, and she was scowling. Lucy lowered her hands. “Sorry,” she said, and smiled, the smile she'd mastered years ago for when people told her how fortunate she was to be the daughter of her family. “I'm just a bit tired.”  
  
Somewhere in his Requip armoury, Rossa had a coil of rope. He tied up the Eisenwalders. Lucy tried to help, but ended up just tying herself to one of them and then Rossa took the rope away from her. Lee Annur raced back to Valerian Hill Town on Marchosias's back and returned an hour later with a squad of six Rune Knights, who tossed the Eisenwalders unceremoniously in the back of their van. The payment was arranged. Lucy couldn't follow how. The Rune Knights left with the Eisenwalders, and Lucy, Lee Annur and Rossa set out back to Valerian Hill Town. It did have a train station, but trains only came every few hours, and by the time they got back to Oak Town, it was well past sunset. All the streetlamps were lit. The three of them walked out of the train station together. “I'm heading home. I guess I'll see you guys later?” Lucy said.  
  
“Sure. Sleep tight,” Rossa said. Lee Annur raised a hand in a lazy farewell, and they both turned uphill towards the guildhall. Lucy stood and watched them go, her smile plastered onto her face, until they were out of sight, and then she sat down hard on the pavement and burst into wracking sobs. Tears streamed down her face. The streetlamps blurred into smears of orange light. Lucy fumbled for her keys and felt through them blindly until she found -  
  
“Open! Gate of the Giant Crab!”  
  
Cancer materialised. Then he just stood there silently, watching her. Was he wary of her? Lucy craned her head back to look up at him. “I screwed up,” she said, and hiccuped. At once Cancer crouched down beside her and pulled her into a hug. Lucy clutched at his shirt and sniffled “I'm the worst stellar spirit mage ever,” into his shoulders.  
  
“That's an exaggeration, =ebi,” Cancer said.  
  
“Tell Taurus I'm sorry,” Lucy ordered, scrubbing her arm across her eyes. “I'm really sorry, and I'll never do it again, and, and-” Her voice cracked. “It wasn't fair, I'm sorry, I'll-”  
  
“You screwed up,” Cancer said. “Everyone does. Even Mistress Layla did, -ebi.” Lucy didn't think her mother had ever got it this wrong, though. “Taurus'll be fine soon.”  
  
“I know, but that doesn't make it okay!” Lucy made a helpless gesture. “I shouldn't have listened to her. I don't know why I – I don't know why I even wanted to join a guild!” Gajeel had only invited her for a joke anyway. She knew that. “I'm not... cold enough for this. I don't want to be!” Her voice had risen to a shriek. Cancer patted her ineffectually on the shoulder. Lucy sagged back down. “I should just go home. I can't stay-”  
  
At that Cancer interrupted her sharply. “You weren't happy there before, -ebi. It wouldn't be any different now.”  
  
“What else am I supposed to do?” Lucy sniffed and leant against Cancer's side.  
  
“Leave and find another guild?” Cancer sounded doubtful, though.  
  
“Do you think it'd be different?” Sue said all the guilds were the same, and really, why would any of them be any different? Everyone wanted to be the best. “I miss when we were just wandering around.” Wasn't being in a guild supposed to be better? Everyone who wasn't in a guild wanted to be. There was no way you could be a proper full-fledged mage if you weren't. There were probably hundreds of people who would love to be where she was. They would probably be much better at it.  
  
Lucy pulled off her hat and wiped her eyes with it. “Can you tell Taurus I'm sorry?”  
  
“He already knows, but sure,” Cancer said. “One thing - Aquarius isn't happy.”  
  
Lucy blanched. Apologising was never good enough for Aquarius. “I'll... um... never summon her again, then,” she said. Cancer agreed that this was the best solution.  
  
What should she do now? Avoid Lee Annur and Rossa forever? “I'd better get back to the guild,” Lucy said. “I think I need to talk to someone.” That wasn't going to be any fun. And she looked like a mess, her hair was sticking up all over the place. She tried to smooth it into shape with her fingers. Cancer looked actually physically pained by this, so she let him take over and sat there mutely while he ran a comb through her hair, settled her hat at the cutest possible angle (he used a protractor), stepped back and inspected his handiwork.  
  
“Looks good, -ebi.”  
  
“Right,” Lucy said. “Thank you?”  
  
“Any time, mistress,” Cancer said. Lucy managed a watery smile before she reached for her keys again and closed his Gate. Cancer stooped to press a kiss to her forehead and vanished into starlight.  
  
Lucy's smile faded. She straightened her hat and trudged, head down, towards the guild hall. It was actually busier at this time of night; all the lights were blazing and she could hear laughter and raucous conversation from the other end of the street. When she stepped inside, the noise and brilliance were overwhelming and she stood helplessly for a moment in the doorway, not sure what to do.  
  
“Ashley!” Sue hollered. “Over here!” She was sitting cross-legged on a table and waving with a pint in her hand. Ryos got quickly out of the way of the falling foam. Lee Annur and Rossa were at the same table. Lucy couldn't see Gajeel anywhere, though. That was good. She went over to them.  
  
“Thought you were heading home?” Sue greeted her, but before Lucy had time to mumble an excuse she added, “Also, Ryos is spying on you for Gajeel! Just a friendly warning!” Ryos went bright red.  
  
“What?” Lucy squawked. “Why?”  
  
“Don't take it personally, he's spying on the rest of us for the jerkbag as well,” Sue said. “Maybe Gajeel's got a bet on or something?” Actually, Lucy knew exactly what it was about. He was waiting for her to fail hilariously. Couldn't he just get on with it and pulverise her himself?  
  
She shot Ryos a venomous look. He scooted rapidly to the other end of the table.  
  
“Ashley, that's mean!” Sue barked. “Ryos, baby, honey pie, get over here, I love you even if you are a sneaking little minion.”  
  
“Sue, he's eleven. _Not okay_ ,” Rossa said. “Ryos, come and sit with us where you will be safe from molestation.”  
  
“Ryos, don't listen to him, he's a creepy skeleton fetishist and he wants to remove your bones and eat them. Now come here so I can dress you in an adorable frog costume.”  
  
Ryos looked between Sue and Rossa, and then sat stock-still and quietly regretted all his life choices.  
  
“Sometimes I feel bad for that kid,” Lee Annur said, gazing into the dregs of her lager. There was a moment of silence. She looked up sharply. “Wait. Crap. Did I just say that out loud?”  
  
“A little,” Rossa said.  
  
“Uh,” Lucy said. “Could I talk to you for a minute? Somewhere quieter?”  
  
“Fine,” Lee Annur said, drained her glass and stood. She picked up her staff. “Lead the way.”  
  
They went outside and leant against the wall. Lucy took a deep breath and plunged in. “I don't think we'd better work together any more.”  
  
“What?” Lee Annur pulled a face. “Why? I mean, sure, you're new, and you're crap, but everybody's new and crap at some point.”  
  
“I... uh... I think we just have different approaches to summoning?” Lucy hedged.  
  
“Yeah, you're kind of squeamish,” Lee Annur agreed. “But you're improving! I mean, you're making an effort.”  
  
“It's not that,” Lucy said. “I'm just... I'm not really happy with how you expect me to-” Lee Annur's expression darkened. Lucy's voice dwindled to a whimper. “- treat my spirits?”  
  
Lee Annur stared at her. “Are you serious? Are you actually saying you'd rather a partner of yours got hurt than some of your property got damaged?”  
  
“They're not my property!” Lucy protested. “They're my spirits!”  
  
“Exactly! Your spirits! It's a possessive!” Lee Annur's voice rose to a shout. “Oh my God, do I have to explain grammar to you as well?”  
  
Lucy took a step back, hands raised defensively.  
  
“I – it's not like I _want_ anyone else to get hurt-”  
  
“It's not like it kills them!” Lee Annur snapped. “Hell, Marchosias's grown legs back before! Are stellar spirits just complete fragile swooning pansies or something?”  
  
“No, I know they would heal, I just-” Lucy started. Lee Annur interrupted.  
  
“You just what? Like, you're standing there and thinking _well_ I could let one of my actual _human_ guildmates get maimed or briefly inconvenience one of my summons, huh, well, obvious choice there? It is an obvious choice! How are you getting this _wrong_?”  
  
“That's not what I said!” Lucy protested. There was a lump in her throat and her eyes were stinging with tears again.  
  
“You are saying that! Those are like the exact words you're saying! Are you not listening to yourself?” Lee Annur made an exasperated gesture and rolled her eyes.  
  
“Can you let me talk?” Lucy demanded. “I'm not saying I would prioritise my spirits over someone I was working with! I just don't see why we can't try to find a way where nobody gets hurt!”  
  
“Right, well, if we lived in a perfect fairyland that would be an option, but we don't and it's not,” Lee Annur bit out. “ How naïve are you? 'I'm not happy with how you expect me to treat my spirits' – well screw you then! Can you imagine if I started caring more about my demons than about Rossa?” She made an expansive gesture possibly signifying the magnitude of the black hole their partnership would collapse into and then added “That's not even worth considering. That's not even a hypothetical situation because in no universe would I do that and screw me if I did!”  
  
“It's not the same,” Lucy snarled, hot tears spilling from her eyes. “I don't have a partner! I work by myself!”  
  
“You'd better stick to working by yourself, then,” Lee Annur snapped, and spun away.  
  
“Wait!” Lucy shouted. Lee Annur disappeared back inside. Lucy scrubbed her hands across her face and sat down, her back against the wall. Was Lee Annur right? Lucy didn't want anyone she was working with to get hurt. She just didn't want her spirits to be hurt either! Was that not good enough? Did she need to be harder, or colder, or stronger? Lucy drew her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and let her head hang down. It couldn't get worse.  
  
“Hey, princess! What's your problem?” Lucy raised her head. Gajeel was standing over her.  
  
“Um,” Lucy said. Gajeel grinned and made a fist. Tendons stood out on his forearms. The leather of his gloves creaked.  
  
“Want me to punch it out for you?”  
  
“... I don't need anything punched out of me!” Lucy yelped, and fled.


	5. The Shadow Over Cypress Town

“Sue, are you reading the paper?” Lucy asked. Sue, who hadn't actually opened it, handed it over. Lucy held the paper up as a protective barrier against Lee Annur's glare.  
  
“Hey, there's an article about Fairy Tail in here!”  
  
“Read it out,” Bozo said. “They're always good for a laugh.”  
  
Lucy obliged.

_FAIRY TAIL UNLEASHES HAVOC AT REGULAR MEETING_

_A plot by the dark guild Eisenwald to assassinate the guild masters of Fiore's District Three has been foiled by a team of mages from Fairy Tail. Eisenwald had located a Zeref-made flute named 'Lullaby' designed to murder anyone who heard it and intended to play this to the guild masters at their regular meeting. The Fairy Tail squad, comprising Erza Titania, ice mage Grey Fullbuster and fire mage Natsu Dragneel, learned of the plot by chance and pursued the Eisenwalders to Oshibana Train Station, where they were trapped in a whirlwind while prominent Eisenwald criminal Erigor 'the Reaper' continued to the site of the regular meeting._  
  
 _The Fairy Tail squad demanded assistance from a captured Eisenwald member identified as 'Kage', who told them that they would be able to escape the whirlwind by going under it. The Fairy Tail team thus attempted to dig through the floor, causing an estimated J200,000 worth of damage. 'Kage' reminded them that as a large public building the Oshibana train station was connected to the city's main sewers; he states that he would not have done so had he realised that they would drag him through the sewers as well. The Fairy Tail squad, plus 'Kage', pursued Erigor in an SE-plug automobile, while Natsu Dragneel flew on ahead and was able to delay Erigor to the extent that Erigor, Dragneel and the remainder of the Fairy Tail squad arrived at the masters' meeting near-simultaneously. Master Makarov of Fairy Tail attempted to convince Erigor not to go through with his plan, to his considerable amusement. However, the captured Eisenwald mage 'Kage', whom the Fairy Tail squad had inexplicably brought with them, then seized the flute using shadow magic and broke it._  
  
 _In the subsequent chaos 'Kage' was severely wounded and the building housing the regular meeting was demolished, though Erigor was defeated in the process. He has been taken into custody by the Rune Knights. Oshibana Train Station remains inaccessible, though a detachment of military spellbreakers is now endeavoring to dispel the enchantment._  
  
 _Master Makarov has requested that the Eisenwalder 'Kage' be paroled under Fairy Tail's supervision when he is released from hospital. It is yet unknown whether the Council will approve this._

Lucy refolded the paper. In hindsight, she was actually relieved she hadn't joined Fairy Tail – with the amount of damage they caused, it would be really hard not to be hurt by a guildmate even if they weren't trying to attack you. Besides, their master was obviously crazy! Were they so hard up for members that he'd try to recruit Eisenwalders?  
  
“Do you think they'll grant the parole?”  
  
“If they do, it'll only be to give the trash a rope and hope they hang themselves,” Bozo said. There was a murmur of assent.  
  
One thing Lucy had noticed since joining the guild was that while 'trash' was everybody's favourite word and could in theory be applied to anything, 'the trash' without further qualifiers always meant Fairy Tail. “Why don't we like Fairy Tail? In particular?” Lucy asked. Off their incredulous stares, she added hurriedly, “I know they're weak trash, I saw their Dragonslayer get completely knocked out from seasickness. But what do we have against them in particular?”  
  
“Master Jose and the trash's master don't get on,” Bozo said shortly. “They fought at the yearly national meeting six years ago and haven't been to the same meeting since.”  
  
So... Master Jose'd lost? Lucy hadn't met Master Jose yet, but considering the mingled terror and reverence that the rest of the guild held for him, it was hard to imagine that he could lose. Everyone was silent and looking down at the table.  
  
“Master Jose would annihilate him in a rematch, though,” Lucy said eventually. “We're stronger than them, though, right?”  
  
“We've definitely got a lot more people,” Rossa said.  
  
“Subdivision filth,” Sue said dismissively. “But our elites are better than theirs.”  
  
“Who do they have?” Lucy asked. “I've met Erza Titania. She seems terrify- tough.”  
  
“Titania's strong, yeah,” Sue conceded. “And Luxus, Makarov's grandson, is pretty powerful, and he's the only one with the right attitude. But that's two against five.”  
  
“Of their other top-ranked mages-” Bozo ticked them off in his fingers. “Gildarts hasn't been seen in so long he's probably dead, Mirajane's been nonfunctional for years, and Mystogan doesn't show up to fights – Luxus's challenged him half a dozen times and he just isn't interested. So, likely irrelevant. We can match them, easily.”  
  
“Mystogan's just playing hard to get,” Sue said.  
  
“No he isn't,” Bozo said shortly.  
  
“Is too!” Sue countered, and looked around the table. “Show of hands - Luxus and Mystogan, secret love affair?”  
  
There was a rousing chorus of agreement. Bozo rolled his eyes.  
  
“It explains a lot, actually,” Lee Annur drawled. “If my boyfriend wore leopard print with purple trousers, I would go into hiding as well.”  
  
“What boyfriend?” Rossa asked her.  
  
Lucy giggled. It was a mistake. Lee Annur impaled her with her stare.  
  
“I... am going to go look at the board,” Lucy said, and retreated. There was a mission on the 3rd Division side of the board to look after a litter of three-headed puppies, which sounded like fun, but if she took 3rd Division jobs people would start to think she was weak, so Lucy sighed and turned to the 1st Division side of the board instead.  
  
There was a mission there to defeat a stellar spirit mage.  
  
“Oooh,” Lucy said, and leant closer. A stellar spirit mage had been terrorising a small country town a few hours south of them, and they were offering three hundred thousand jewel as a reward. That was good enough by itself, but... if she defeated another stellar spirit mage, a bad one, then wouldn't she get the other mage's keys? She needed to get stronger, didn't she?  
  
Lucy tore the poster off the board, noted the name of the town – Cypress – and stuffed it into her pocket. It'd be hard, but it'd be worth it!

* * *

Cypress wasn't a big town; it didn't have a train station of its own and the ticketseller had never even heard of it. Lucy had to consult a map of eastern Fiore to discover that she would need to get a train to Box Town and walk the rest of the way, and then she groaned.  
  
The train took her south and east, into the mountains. Lucy watched out the window as the terrain rose and snowcapped peaks gathered around them; they rattled past herds of grazing sheep, steep slopes dotted with edelweiss, and clattered over rickety bridges across clear glacial rivers and deep crevasses that made her shiver with vertigo and cling to her seat. Lucy took notes – she might want to write a scene set in the mountains one day, after all. Everything was grist for a good writer's mill!  
  
In Box Town she found someone travelling further into the mountains who said he could drop her off a mile from Cypress. Lucy pouted. “Are you sure that's the closest you can get me?” She smiled. “Nice mister?”  
  
He dropped her off a mile from Cypress. Lucy grumbled, shouldered her bag and walked. The town she eventually reached was long and narrow, really only a main street with a tangle of minor roads behind it, stretched along the floor of a valley. On either side forested slopes rose sharply to the sky. At the far end of the town Lucy could just pick out a lake. The mountains and sky mirrored in its still water created an unsettling illusion of a pit yawning open over nothingness.  
  
Lucy accosted a waiter clearing tables outside a small cafe. “Hi! Sorry to interrupt! I'm Lucy Ashley. Do you know where I can find-” Lucy consulted the back of the mission poster. “- Leviva Nulsho?”  
  
“No,” he said.  
  
“...Right,” Lucy said. That wasn't the answer she had been expecting. There couldn't be more people living in this town than there were on her father's estate, could there? And everybody there knew absolutely everybody else! “Thanks anyway!” She went to ask someone else.  
  
Nobody had heard of Leviva Nulsho. Nobody had heard of any Nulshos at all. It was a small town, they said; everybody knew everybody, everyone would know if anyone had placed a request with a guild, and nobody had. Ever.  
  
A small, dark suspicion began to gnaw at Lucy. Could this be a trap? Could one of her guildmates have set this up to get her? No, that was ridiculous – nobody had any reason to lay such an elaborate trap for her. Could she have accidentally stumbled into a trap set for someone else?  
  
Lucy retreated back to the cafe to think about it, and ordered herself a cream cake and a jug of water while she was there. What? She thought better with cake.  
  
“Why not try our fish sauce?” the waitress asked, and indicated a bowl of thick amber liquid standing on the counter by a pot of toast fingers. To be polite, Lucy dunked a toast finger in the sauce and licked it off. Then she gagged, retched, and raced outside into the street to throw up. The waitress followed her with a glass of water, and stood there watching Lucy cough and wipe her mouth. She looked as if Lucy had slapped her.  
  
“It's a local specialty,” she said woefully. “We've been exporting it for nearly three hundred years.”  
  
Had the bowl on the counter been there all three hundred of those years, then? Lucy said inwardly. Out loud she said “It's delicious! It's only a coincidence that I was sick right then!” The waitress didn't believe her.  
  
Lucy sat at her table with her cream cake and thought about it. No matter how much she thought about it, though, or twisted the problem about like a mental puzzle cube, she couldn't get it to make sense. Absently, she dropped her ice knuckleduster into her glass of water and pushed it away from her, across the table. She'd been trying to master activating magic items from a distance for a few weeks, though at the rate she was going she didn't think she would ever be good enough to open a gate without touching the key.  
  
She closed her eyes and focused, creating an image in her mind of the knuckleduster's magical reservoir waiting to be filled with power. She pushed power at it, and opened her eyes. Nothing had happened. Lucy closed her eyes tight, bared her teeth, and screwed up her face, because that was what people did in books when they were concentrating very hard, and tried to force her magic into the knuckleduster. The glass fell over. Water spilled across the table. Lucy squeaked. The waitress was there with a towel so quickly that Lucy nearly suspected she'd been watching her. Lucy held her hands up off the table and apologised furiously while the waitress mopped up and retreated back behind the counter.  
  
Ugh. Lucy leant on her elbows and sighed. That obviously just wasn't ever going to work. She thought about Cypress Town instead. If this was a trap, who was it for? Wasn't it designed for a stellar spirit mage? And she knew she was the only one of those working out of the Oak Town branch. Wouldn't anyone posting any fake mission have to clear it with Bozo first? He definitely hadn't told her it was meant for anyone else when she'd officially taken it. Why would he, though?  
  
Now Lucy had a headache. She slumped down on the table and fiddled with her spoon. It must be a fake of some kind. Everyone was so certain that nobody'd called a guild in...  
  
A quiet voice at the back of Lucy's mind said, _look at their eyes_. She sat up and turned to look. The waitress was serving another customer but watching Lucy. White showed all around her irises. The customer turned, shot Lucy a furtive glance over his shoulder and then turned back sharply as soon as he realised she'd spotted him. They were all terrified.  
  
What the hell was going on?  
  
A tall man in a suit, probably the manager, brought a receipt to her table. Lucy was instantly on alert. “I paid at the counter,” she said.  
  
The manager only shushed her, indicated the receipt, and walked away. Lucy looked at it. There, written down the side in thick dark ink, was a note. _Mage_ , it said. _If you want to know what's going on, meet me by the trees in the park tonight._  
  
Lucy glanced up. The manager was over by the counter, trying to look busy by moving clean glasses around on a tray. Lucy folded the note and slipped it into her pocket.

* * *

The town park was in the middle of town, on the left of the main street as you looked towards the lake. It had a swingset and climbing frame, a pair of benches, a raised round lily pond and, at the back, a grove of trees that backed onto the forest. At midnight ('night' always meant 'midnight', didn't it?) Lucy was waiting in the grove.  
  
She was idly twiddling her hair around her fingers when she heard a twig snap under somebody else's step. She spun around.  
  
It wasn't the man from the cafe. It wasn't even a man. It was a woman.  
  
“...hi?” Lucy said, bemused.  
  
She was young – there were probably only a few years between her and Lucy, though she looked older because she was dressed as if she were about to sit for a portrait. She wore an ochre-coloured gown, with a stole around her shoulders to keep off the night chill. Her mint green hair was swept into an effortlessly-elegant updo. She looked like a star from an old movie. Lucy, in her ripped midriff-baring shirt and shabby pants, felt instantly completely upstaged and resentful. She scowled.  
  
The movie star smiled. “Good evening, Miss Ashley. I hope you didn't have a difficult journey here. Did you come far?”  
  
“Uh... no? I got the train from Oak Town,” Lucy said.  
  
“Oh, Oak Town? I understand the branch of your guild there occupies the keep of what was the old castle. It must be remarkable, to be quartered in a building with such a long history.”  
  
“Um,” Lucy said. “Yes?” She hoped this woman, whoever she was, would get off the subject of historical buildings soon.  
  
“I'm very sorry that you were brought into this mess,” the woman said. “I can assure you that I would have much rather the situation were different, and of course I understand that this is in no way your fault, but, regrettably, you still have to die.”  
  
Wait.  
  
What?  
  
Lucy backed away fast. Was this because she hadn't liked the fish sauce? “Who are you?” The woman turned to follow her and there, right there, only half-hidden by her stole, was her ring of keys. How had Lucy been so blind? She reached for her own keys.  
  
“Oh, tch,” the woman said. “I didn't introduce myself, did I? My name is Eiry Eilac. I own this town.”  
  
Lucy didn't need to hear anything else. “Open! Gate of the Giant Crab!” She'd been holding off on summoning Taurus. Cancer appeared in a shower of starlight, his scissors at the ready. He glanced around. “It's another fight, then, -ebi?”  
  
Lucy pointed at Eiry. “Cancer! Cut this short!” Cancer almost blurred. His scissors slashed towards Eiry Eilac's head. She didn't reach for her keys, though. She raised her hand, palm turned towards Cancer, and said “Thief of Heart.” Cancer stopped. Eiry smiled. Cancer turned, slowly. A magic circle glowed on his chest right above his heart.  
  
“...Cancer?” Lucy said, puzzled, and then shrieked and dived out of the way as his scissors sliced the air above her head. “ _Cancer_!” Why was he attacking her? “Cancer! Stop it!” Cancer snapped his scissors shut and spun them in his hands until he was gripping them like daggers. What was going on? Was this mind-control magic?  
  
“Gate of the Crab! Close!” she shouted, and slashed the key through the air. Nothing happened. “Gate of the Crab, _close_!”  
  
“Gates must be closed through agreement of the summoner and the summoned,” Eiry said. She was standing back, and watching.  
  
Lucy had to get out of there! She dodged a slice from Cancer that would have torn open her belly, fell and tried to scrabble back on her hands and knees. Cancer stood over her. Lucy rolled over and slammed her boot with all the force she could muster into the side of his knee. Cancer went sprawling. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Lucy gasped. She couldn't defeat the two of them just with her whip, and if she tried to summon another spirit then they would just be turned against her!  
  
Unless...  
  
Lucy scrambled to her feet and ran for the lily pond. She hadn't summoned Aquarius since... since the mission with Lee Annur and Rossa, but she knew Aquarius had been itching to mete out justice. She half-fell down by the water's edge – the concrete tore layers of skin from her knees but it was such a distant pain it could have been happening to someone else – and shoved Aquarius's key into the pond. She could hear Cancer's footsteps behind her. How close was he? She could almost feel the quick, surgical strike into the nape of her neck.  
  
“Open! Gate of the Waterbearer!”  
  
The water exploded upwards, and thards of starlight mirrored in the flying droplets coalesced into an extremely angry mermaid. Lucy's breath was still sawing in her throat, but seeing Aquarius's face distorted into animal fury stung new energy out of her. She scrabbled to her feet again and sprinted for the swingset.  
  
“Stop running away!” Aquarius howled. “Get back here and take your fucking punishment!” Lucy didn't stop. She was only a few feet away from one of the swingset's support posts when Aquarius unleashed the Wave of the Waterbearer. The impact of the water swept Lucy off her feet and slammed her into the post, knocking all the air out of her lungs in a bubbling shriek. Everything went black. Pond water and silt rushed into her mouth. She clung tight to the post as the current tried to tear her free and finally, just when her lungs were bursting and she didn't think she could hold on a second longer, the water dropped away.  
  
Lucy gasped in oxygen, unwound one arm carefully from her support post, wiped silt from her eyes and looked around. The pond was overflowing. The lilies were gone. The whole park had become a lake, knee-deep in water. Though the swingset's concrete foundations had held, a few of the smaller trees had been ripped up by the roots, and Lucy knew that would have left deep dark pits behind them that she would never see before she fell into them. Aquarius had left of her own accord. Where was Cancer? Was he all right? She'd done it again, she'd let one of them get hurt...  
  
She peeled the other hand off the support post, with difficulty. Her knuckles were numb and white from the cold water. She tried to take a step and fell down in the mud.  
  
Lucy gritted her teeth and staggered towards the grove, one arm outstretched to keep her balance. The other was fumbling in her pants pocket. It was unbearably slow going, fighting against the mud and the lake with every step, but she couldn't possibly have moved faster. Water sloshed over the tops of her boots. As Lucy reached the treeline and leant dizzily against a fallen trunk, a figure rose up from the mud.  
  
It wasn't Cancer. It was Eiry. The whites of her eyes showed starkly against the mud. Her elegant updo fell bedraggled around her shoulders, her shawl was gone and the deep sophisticated ochre of her dress was invisible under a thick coating of filth. Lucy wheezed out an awful, sobbing laugh and hoisted herself onto the fallen trunk.  
  
“Open,” Eiry rasped. “Gate of the-”  
  
“L-lucy punch,” Lucy rebutted, and fell off the treetrunk. Her right fist hit the water first. The surface froze instantly. An inch-thick skin of ice rippled out across the surface of the lake. Ice rimed the drifting leaves, crawled up the treetrunks, and froze a prison around Eiry Eilac's waist and arms. She let out a startled, stifled squeak. Lucy struggled to her feet The ice creaked under her weight. Lucy remembered skating lessons in winter on the lake at home - spread your weight out on thin ice – and dropped to her hands and knees. That was why, when Eiry shouted “Caelum! Fire!” the blast that seared afterimages into Lucy's retinas and scorched the air passed far above her head.  
  
Lucy found she could move faster after all.

* * *

Somebody had set her up, and Lucy knew exactly who that somebody was. She stormed – well, squelched – back to the cafe. She wanted to get the hell out of there, back to the station in Box Town and all the way back to her own flat. What she needed was to find out what was going on. She couldn't go back without completing the job. She knew what would happen then. She'd seen it herself. It had happened a couple of weeks ago to another First Division girl.  
  
Lucy had been out in the yard at the back of the guild hall when it happened, sparring with Sue, or more accurately, Sue had been using her as a punchbag. Lucy was bent over, wheezing, her hands on her knees. Sue was looking towards the guildhall, with a frown. “You hear that?”  
  
“I don't hear anything,” Lucy said, straightening up.  
  
“Yeah, exactly,” Sue said, and headed for the guildhall.  
  
“Wait!” Lucy protested.  
  
“I'll beat you up again in a minute, come on,” Sue ordered. Lucy trailed after her. Inside, it was so quiet Lucy felt like she was stepping into a funeral. Sue went to the archway in the mezzanine and peered through. Lucy followed her, feeling queasy with apprehension; it was unnatural, the way that the rest of the rowdy, raucous Phantom Lord mages were sitting silently with their eyes fixed on the tabletops.  
  
“Shit,” Sue said, and pulled back sharply. She leant against the wall with her arms folded tight across her chest, her head down and her eyes shut. Lucy peeked around the archway. Gajeel and Bozo were standing in the middle of the guild hall, facing a girl Lucy vaguely knew; didn't she specialise in binding spells or something like that? She had loose shoulder-length green hair, and wore capri pants and a short cloak that covered up her left arm.  
  
“You can't do this!” she protested. “It was only one mission!”  
  
“One catastrophic failure,” Bozo corrected her shortly. “You embarrassed the guild. We're not about to let you do it again.”  
  
“You got beaten by trash,” Gajeel drawled. “That makes you trash as well. You know why Phantom Lord's the strongest guild in the country? Because we don't take weaklings.”  
  
“It was one mission!” the girl flared up. “I can still work!” She sounded close to tears. “Demote me, whatever, just don't make me leave-”  
  
Gajeel grabbed her by the back of her neck and ripped her cloak off. The girl shrieked and raised both arms to protect herself. Except... Lucy blinked, and then flinched back. The girl didn't have both arms; the left ended halfway down her upper arm. The stump was wrapped in bandages. Gajeel shook her like a doll. “Oi, girlie, where was your mark again? I don't see it!” He flung her bodily towards the door. She hit the ground twenty feet away with a cry of pain. “Get out!”  
  
“Nothing personal, Seryn,” Bozo called after her. “You know the rules.”  
  
“The rules are that we've got no room for trash that can't keep their own arms on,” Gajeel barked, and laughed. “Gihihihi!”  
  
Lucy shuddered and forced the memory down. She didn't much like being in a guild, but it would be much worse to be forced out.  
  
The front door of the café was locked, so Lucy kicked in one of the panes of glass in the door and scrambled through it. The manager lived upstairs. Lucy kicked his door in, too. It opened into a narrow hallway. The manager was standing at the other end. He was wearing a nightgown and a bedcap with a bobble on the end. His wife was hiding behind him, gripping his arm.  
  
“Oh, crap,” he said.  
  
“I want to know what's going on,” Lucy said. “Who's Eiry Eilac and what's she doing? Tell me! Right now!”  
  
“What?” the wife said. The cafe manager clutched at her for support. She shook him off, snapped “If this is about her then I'm not having anything to do with it! You want all of us to end up like the Nulshos?” and vanished into the back of the flat. A door slammed. The cafe manager wilted.  
  
“Oh, so you do know what happened to them!” Lucy said. “What was it?”  
  
“Not really! They were here a few days ago, and then by the next morning they'd disappeared!”  
  
Just because one of them asked a guild to get rid of her? “Who's Eiry? And why's she insane?”  
  
“Her father used to be the mayor here,” the cafe manager said, very quickly. “We threw him out fifteen years ago. He – there was a dark guild here that was extorting people, protection money and stuff, and when we got some legal guild mages in to sort them out they found out he was working with them and we ran both of them out of town. She came back again about a year or so ago and took over.”  
  
“What happened to the old mayor, then?”  
  
“I don't know! Someone told me she fed him to a demon, but...” He made a helpless gesture. “I don't know!”  
  
“What's she doing?” Lucy demanded. “What does she want?”  
  
“Uh, I don't – some people said she's trying to get revenge for her father, and some people said she's trying to finish off what he started, but – it's not as if she talks about it! I don't know anything!”  
  
“If you say that again I'm going to feed you to my snake,” Lucy snapped. “You know enough to find her and tip her off about where I'll be! What is it that you're not telling me?”  
  
“I - I know she's supposed to be somewhere else tonight,” he stuttered, “because she was worried she wouldn't be able to get there on time, and she measured it on a map-”  
  
“Where is it?”  
  
“... the map, or the place?”  
  
“The place!” Lucy shouted.  
  
“Oh, God – okay, it's the cliff with the swing, in the woods, to the right of the lake, if you go down the side road that the hairdresser's on and keep going you'll find it!” Lucy tried to map that out in her head and failed. She didn't even remember seeing a hairdresser's when she was walking around earluer. But he didn't have much of a reason to lie to her, did he? Of course he was just sending her back to where he thought Eiry would be, but wasn't that the point? “If you're sending me into another trap, then I'm going to survive that one too, and then I'm going to come back here and kill your whole family and make you watch,” Lucy snapped. She was bluffing. Obviously, she was bluffing. The cafe manager shook his head convulsively. “I'm not lying, I swear!”  
  
“Good,” Lucy said. “Oh, and...” She indicated her sodden outfit. “I need some new clothes, too.”

* * *

Five minutes later, Lucy was back in dry clothes – dark jeans, a grey tank top and a red and blue hooded sweatshirt - and hurrying down the street towards the meeting place. She hugged the walls and stuck to the shadows, scurrying rapidly from one patch of darkness to the next. Of course it was very unlikely that anyone she knew would see her dressed like this – or that they would care if they did – but this was no time to take chances. She kept one hand on her whip, too, ready to defend herself.  
  
She found the hairdresser's, a small shop with the name Curl Up And Dye emblazoned across its front in brashly cheerful pink letters, and swung down into the side street. A few minutes later she was climbing into the mountains outside the town. Lucy had been afraid that she would lose her way in the forest, but to her surprise she found herself following a broad path through the trees. There was grass growing back over the earth that had been worn bare by passing feet, but it was still clear enough to follow even by the meagre starlight that penetrated the tree cover. The trees loomed over her from either side. At any moment Lucy expected to see a slim figure in ochre step out of the shadows. She shivered and moved quicker.  
  
The path twisted and turned but finally led Lucy to an exceptionally broad ledge in a shallow rock face. There was someone already standing on the ledge. Lucy squeaked and dived behind a tree, her heart hammering. She pressed her back against the trunk and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing happened. No cry, no polite greeting, no footsteps. Lucy peeked out around the curve of the trunk, holding her breath as if whoever was standing on the little plateau might hear it.  
  
It wasn't Eiry. It was a short stout man, with a woolly hat pulled down low over his ears, hopping from foot to foot and blowing on his hands. He had a riding crop thrust through his belt. Lucy wasn't really worried about that; her bullwhip had a much longer reach and she could hit him before he could hit her. She looked around, searching for Eiry. On the near side of the plateau to the town, the rock face fell away steeply. A tyre hanging from a thick tree branch just over the edge suggested that this was a popular spot for Cypress Town's children, or had been. On the other side, the cliff face reared up again from a heap of huge broken boulders. Lucy couldn't see Eiry. She leaned out a little further. The short man blew on his fingers again, looked up, and spotted her instantly. Lucy blanched.  
  
“Hey, you!” the short man yelled. “Lassie in the red jumper, I see you hiding there! You Eiry Eilac?”  
  
“...Yes,” Lucy said. She stepped out from behind the tree. “Hello?” She took a few cautious steps beyond the treeline.  
  
“You've kept me waiting,” he informed her. “Shan't lie, I was thinking about having a go on the swing to pass the time.” He let out a booming laugh.  
  
“I'm very sorry,” Lucy said. “Please excuse me.” She straightened her back and tried to sound as much like Eiry as she could.  
  
“Never mind, my duck, these things happen,” he said. “Do you fancy getting down to business, then? It's a long way out of these hills of yours and I'd rather be away by sun-up.” He pulled out a big heavy book, bound in brown leather and with a faded green ribbon to mark its place. They were trading? What were they trading for?  
  
“I'd like to see inside it, if you please,” Lucy said. Actually, this guy had never met Eiry, so why was she bothering to imitate her? Well, it would look weird now if she just stopped. The man held the book up and flipped through the pages – tiny text and big pictures, mostly of circles. Lucy's polite smile wavered. What was that about? Why did Eiry want a book about circles?  
  
The short man snapped the book closed with a thump. “One Nekrotheokeimenon, accurate and intact,” he said. “Well?”  
  
A nekkle – a nakker – a what?  
  
Seriously, a what?  
  
The silence stretched out. The trader's cheery smile started to fade. Lucy needed to think of something to say.  
  
She couldn't think of anything to say!  
  
Lucy exploded. She threw her hands in the air and screamed “What the hell is a negaturkeymon?” Birds flew cawing from the trees. The trader stared at her blankly.  
  
“It's something that doesn't concern you, Lucy Ashley.”  
  
Lucy whipped around with a cry of shock. Eiry Eilac glided out of the forest. She'd changed – her hair now fell in loose curls around her shoulders and she wore a long white gown that made her look like a ghost. One hand daintily lifted her skirt clear of the dirt. The other held her keys. Lucy yanked her whip from her belt. Eiry raised a key. “Open, Gate of the Great Bear. Ursa Major!”  
  
There was a blast of smoke and a burst of supernova light. The light coalesced into a massive, massive bear. It towered above Eiry, who clasped her hands and gave Lucy a beatific smile like a painted saint, and when it roared it bared razorblade teeth and when it slashed its claws through the air it nearly left sparks in their wake.  
  
Lucy changed her plan. She spun ninety degrees and lashed her whip at the swing instead. The end wrapped about the hanging rope and a quick jerk of the whip brought the tyre swinging inwards over the plateau. Lucy raced across the grass to meet it. Ursa Major's claws slashed through the air behind her as she threw herself off the edge of the cliff, but Lucy was already sailing shrieking through the air. At the apex of the swing's arc she let go and was flung into the trees. She hit the ground with a cry. The thick red sweater cushioned the impact a little, but not enough. She sprawled out on the ground, head spinning.  
  
She didn't have time for this! Ursa Major could be on her any second! Lucy scrambled up and ran to hide among the trees.  
  
“Now what in the buggeration was that?” the trader asked.  
  
“A minor problem,” Eiry said. “Please don't let it concern you. It's Mr Kreuze, yes? I do apologise for my late arrival.”  
  
Mr Kreuze grunted dismissively. “These things happen. Never mind it. Pretty little problem, though ... might take it off your hands for you, if I run into her again.”  
  
“If you like,” Eiry said.  
  
Lucy risked a look up. Ursa Major wasn't chasing her. She was standing on the edge of the plateau, scanning the trees. Lucy huddled against the trunk of a spreading oak, in the shadow of its branches. Her heart was hammering so loudly the bear must be able to hear her. She looked up again and saw her whip, lying in the grass in full view of Eiry and Mr Kreuze on the plateau. Lucy groaned and covered her face with her hands. She couldn't do anything without her whip! She would have to wait until they were done trading whatever they were trading for before she could go get it back.  
  
She straightened up, slowly and carefully, so that she could see better.  
  
Mr Kreuze rubbed his hands together. “Now, I've been waiting a while, my kitten, and it's chilly up here. You fancy getting down to business?”  
  
“Ursa Major, the rock,” Eiry ordered. Ursa Major lumbered across to the heap of boulders on the other side, reared up to rest her front paws on the largest, and pushed. The boulder scraped slowly out of the way, revealing behind it a low-ceilinged cave. A dozen people were crowded inside, from an old couple with white dandelion-clock hair down to a huddle of little kids. They were all in chains. Was this the Nulsho family?  
  
Mr Kreuze looked them over, and then grinned. “Some pretty fine specimens in there. And might be I could get something for the old ones on the catfood market-” He let out another booming laugh. The people in the cave flinched back. So did Lucy – he was a slave trader? Ugh! Even Eiry made a disgusted face, but as soon as Mr Kreuze turned back she was all pleasant smiles again.  
  
“Well, you've held up your end of the bargain, my . Here's your book-” He tossed it to her. Eiry snatched it out of the air and flicked through the pages. “I'm hoping you know what it is?” He chuckled.  
  
“I'm reasonably well-informed,” Eiry said, clasping the book tight to her chest. “Thank you, Mr Kreuze.”  
  
“Pleasure doing business with you, my duck,” Mr Kreuze said. “Now, I can't say as I know what you're planning to do with that, sweetheart, and can't say as I much care either, but mind holding off until me and my goods are well away from here? All the way in Bosco'd be just dandy.” He was looking at the chained people in the cave.  
  
“It won't be a problem,” Eiry assured him. “Ursa Major? Kill him.”  
  
Lucy recoiled sharply against the tree, both hands going to her mouth.  
  
“What?” Mr Kreuze whirled around. “You treacherous bitch!” he spat, and brought both hands together. “Acid Bubbles!” Shiny purple bubbles poured from his cupped hands. Ursa Major charged. The acid bubbles burst against her thick fur and chewed suppurating pits into her flesh, but she ploughed on through the damage. Lucy could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Mr Kreuze drew the riding crop from his belt, but it was already too late. Ursa Major knocked him to the ground with one blow from a forepaw. Mr Kreuze's scream cut off abruptly as her jaws closed on his head. Oh God. Oh, God. Lucy scrabbled backwards, whimpering. She felt dizzy. It was an effort just to breathe. Even if he was a slave trader, that was –  
  
One of the women in the cave was keening softly. A few of the bubbles had been blown towards Eiry by a night breeze. She stepped gracefully aside to let them float past. Ursa Major staggered and fell. Lucy felt the earth shake as the stellar spirit's bulk crashed to the floor.  
  
“Thank you, Ursa Major,” Eiry said. Ursa Major only snarled in response. Eiry gave a little shrug, as if to say 'Suit yourself,' and dismissed her. She turned to the edge of the plateau. “Did you appreciate that, Lucy Ashley?” Lucy stopped breathing. Her blood ran cold. Eiry raised a key. “Open, Gate of the Hunting Hounds! Canes Venatici!” A flash of light resolved into a pair of slim long-legged hunting dogs.  
  
There wasn't going to be time to retrieve her whip. Lucy whirled away and broke into a run, hearing howls behind as she did. The hounds were gaining on her.


	6. The Shadow Over Cypress Town II

Lucy had half-hoped that when she reached the town there would be lights, people, something she could use, but it was well past midnight and the whole town was fast asleep. Even if they knew she was out there, why would anyone look? She tore across the broad open main street and down a side road, trying to find somewhere to hide. There was nowhere, and a bark from her right side sent her racing down an alley to her left instead. She knew the hounds were close behind her – she could hear their paws on the paving stones – but she didn't dare look back. If she stopped for a moment they'd rip her to pieces. Lucy's breath came hard and her lungs burned. The streets and alleys were blurring together. She felt like she'd been running in circles for hours, and -  
  
Lucy slipped on the cobbles and went sprawling on the ground. Her breath was sobbing in her throat. She couldn't possibly run any more. She didn't have a choice! She reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”  
  
Taurus materialised, brandishing his axe and roaring out his battle cry. “Miss Lucy's body is the best!” Lucy's breath caught in her throat. She had been afraid that he would still be hurt or burned, but there wasn't a scratch on him, so despite the situation she found herself smiling ear to ear.  
  
“Thief of Heart,” said Eiry.  
  
Lucy's breath caught in her throat. Taurus broke off mid-sentence. The light died out of his eyes. Lucy stumbled back, just realising how well she'd been played. The hounds hadn't really been chasing her; they had just herded her around in a circle, right back to Eiry. This was their town. She'd never really stood a chance.  
  
“Taurus,” she said weakly. He swung his axe at her. Lucy screamed and threw herself aside. “Taurus, stop it! Gate of the Bull, close!” Nothing happened. She tried to scrabble up and away but Taurus grabbed her by the calf and hauled her towards him. She was going to be killed by one of her own spirits! Was this her punishment for letting Taurus get hurt? Was this a nightmare?  
  
“Taur-” His hand closed around her throat, cutting off her air, and he lifted her off the ground. It felt as if her head was going to come off. Lucy grabbed his wrist and kicked out at him. She might have been kicking a wall. Taurus stared at her with blank dead eyes. Hot panic flooded through her. There was a roaring in her ears like the sea and blackness was seeping in around the edges of her vision. She caught a glimpse of Eiry, smiling faintly as if she were amused, but then Eiry's smile fractured as the Canes Venatici attacked her.  
  
Eiry hit the floor with a cry of shock, throwing her arms up over her head. Taurus instantly let go of Lucy. She fell to the ground and lay there, sucking down air. “Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum!” Eiry shouted, and a giant sword-like chisel appeared in her hands. She laid about herself with it. The blunt edge caught one of the dogs in the belly and flung it away, howling. The other snarled and skittered back out of range. Eiry dropped the chisel and extended one hand towards the Hounds. “Thief of Heart!” Glowing magical circles appeared over the dogs' narrow chests. “Close, Gate of the Hounds!” The dogs vanished. Eiry spun back to Lucy and Taurus. “Thief of Heart!”  
  
Taurus stooped and grabbed Lucy by the upper arm. She should have closed Taurus's gate when she had the chance. She hadn't thought of it. She was such an idiot for not thinking of it! “Gate of the Bull, close,” she rasped. “Taurus-”  
  
“Gates are closed by mutual accord,” Eiry reminded her. “They can't be closed one-sidedly.” Taurus lifted Lucy off her feet. She dangled in midair in front of his blank face. It occurred to her, distantly, that she hadn't told him she was sorry. She didn't want to die, and – unless she was delirious with exhaustion – deep in his dull eyes she thought she could see a flicker of her own horror. She couldn't let this happen. If she let this happen she never deserved to be a stellar spirit mage to begin with.  
  
“Gate of the Bull,” she whispered. She saw the Gate in her head, a huge oaken door with a massive iron lock and bar, and slammed it shut. “Close!”  
  
Taurus melted into starlight. For the tenth time that night, Lucy fell to the ground.  
  
“What?” Eiry said.  
  
“I did it?” Lucy croaked.  
  
“...congratulations,” Eiry said sourly. “Open, Gate of the Great Bear! Ursa Major!”  
  
The bear spirit appeared. There was no mind control here; from the red glaring rage in Ursa Major's eyes, it would be only too happy to rip her to shreds.  
  
“Look!” Lucy shouted, her throat painfully raw, and pointed. “An Ursa Minor!”  
  
Ursa Major turned to look. Lucy dragged on the magic she had left, turned it into energy, and bolted.  
  
How much would the wounds Ursa Major already had slow her down? Lucy threw a hunted look back over her shoulder as she skidded around a corner back onto the main street. Ursa Major was charging after her with the speed of a freight train, even though she was lurching from side to side and holding one of her hind paws off the ground. But as the celestial bear rounded the corner after Lucy, she lurched and staggered and had to nearly stop altogether. She wasn't very agile now at all.  
  
Lucy ran for a narrow alley, with Ursa Major hot on her heels, and then at the last moment spun and shot off in the other direction. Ursa Major tried to turn, stumbled, staggered and crashed into a dustbin. Lucy heard the reverberating clang and the noise of the dustbin lid rolling across the paving stones. Ahead of her she saw the lake.  
  
Lucy formulated a completely mad and desperate plan.  
  
The last building before the docks was a big hall, with racks outside to dry fish on. The doors and all the windows were locked. Lucy snatched a crossbar from one of the drying racks and slammed the end into one of the windows. Glass shards rained down. Lucy threw the crossbar aside and clambered through the window. The slivers hanging on around the edges of the frame cut into her hands and shins, but Lucy barely noticed. She swept a quick glance around the hall and saw two massive fireplaces at either side of the hall and, piled up between them, stacks of massive earthenware pots as big as bathtubs, sacks of dried herbs and barrels stacked up on top of each other. Ursa Major crashed through the front door. Lucy screamed and dived behind the stacked barrels, and one blow of Ursa Major's massive front paws smashed them into pieces. Lucy shrieked and ducked flat, covering her head with both arms as wood fragments and dust showered down on her.  
  
More importantly, though, this flung Cypress Town's local speciality fish sauce _everywhere_.  
  
The stink was overwhelming. Lucy scrambled backwards, slipping in the thick amber liquid. Ursa Major let out a howl of pain and threw herself to the ground. The floorboards shook. Ursa Major rolled on the floor as if she was trying to smother a fire. More fish sauce seeped into her fur and the pink melted-looking pits that the acid bubbles had left on her. Ursa Major yowled, clambered to her feet and charged from the hall.  
  
What was that about? Lucy stumbled away, slipped and fell on her face. Fish sauce spattered her arms and dripped into the cuts she'd got from the glass.  
  
Oh. It had salt in.  
  
 _Ow._  
  
“Ow, ow, ow,” Lucy whimpered as she trudged doggedly towards the other exit. It opened into a narrow alley, next to a fire escape leading up to the first floor. She climbed the steps. Getting onto the roof from there was acutely difficult, and required several minutes of ungainly wriggling with her rear end sticking out over the edge, but finally she managed to hunker down against one of the chimney pots. It would be impossible to spot her from the ground. Below she could see Ursa Major by the white-capped wake that the bear left as it waded out into the water. The Canes Venatici, she thought, were circling the building and trying to pick up her trail again, but that was impossible when everything stank so badly of fish sauce. Wherever she was, Eiry closed their gates. Lucy saw the flashes of starlight as they returned to the stellar spirit world, and closed her eyes. Tears dripped down her face. The last of the energy she'd borrowed from her magical power was gone, and now her muscles just hurt more. She couldn't do that again. She barely had enough energy left to summon one spirit.  
  
She rolled onto her back and mumbled “Open, Gate of the Southern Cross, Crux.”  
  
Grandpa Crux appeared and frowned down at her.  
  
“Hi,” Lucy rasped. Her throat still hurt. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I need to know about a book. I don't know if it's got anything to do with stellar spirits, really, though- what's wrong?”  
  
Grandpa Crux was looking around with his nose wrinkled. “Do you smell fish?” Lucy wilted.  
  
“...can you just look for the book for me, please? It's really thick and old-looking, and I think it was called... um... the copacabana?”  
  
Grandpa Crux looked blank.  
  
“Or the negaturkeymon?” Lucy hazarded. “Can you look, please?”  
  
Grandpa Crux shut his eyes.  
  
He might not be able to find anything. But there was a good chance it had to do with stellar spirit magic, wasn't there? She had time. She could rest and make a plan. Eiry Eilac didn't seem to be much good in a physical fight. If she could catch her without her keys...  
  
Was she crazy?! Didn't she remember how Ursa Major had slaughtered that slave trader? Didn't she remember Taurus trying to throttle her to death? What was she supposed to do, ambush Eiry in the bathroom? She wanted to go home, even if Phantom Lord would expel her for it. She wasn't cut out for this. She'd only been put into First Division as a joke! It was only because of luck that she was still even alive!  
  
Lucy groaned and covered her face with her arms. She wished she had a partner. She would never have even imagined it before she'd joined Phantom Lord, but in the guild partnership was more like being married than like being friends, and when she remembered her first mission she could see why – if you had someone you worked well with, that you could trust to support you, wasn't it worth hanging onto them with all your strength? That sounded a lot better than being all by herself, stuck on a roof, covered with fish sauce.  
  
Grandpa Crux's eyes popped open. “This is bad! This is very bad!”  
  
Lucy propped herself up on one elbow. “What is it?”  
  
“The Nekrotheokeimenon-”  
  
“Yeah, that was it!”  
  
“-is a text for summoning chthonians.”  
  
“...what?” Lucy said. “They exist?”  
  
“They exist,” Crux confirmed.  
  
Lucy swallowed. “What are they?” She tried to remember what she knew about chthonians – urban legends, mostly, horror novels. Wasn't there a story that someone had tried to summon a chthonian to devour Zeref and Zeref had eaten the chthonian instead?  
  
“They are entities which exist outside our reality, and which are trying to get in,” Crux said. It sounded as if he was quoting from something. “It may be that they see our reality as a beacon of warmth and light and so crave it, without caring that it would be destroyed in the consuming. Or perhaps that is only a conceited dream, and our world and our existence is as alien and horrifying to them as theirs is to us, and so they pursue our annihilation. Or, more likely, their reasons are unfathomable to any intelligence born of this world. They exist, they want to get in and eat their fill of our reality, and this cannot be permitted; that is all we know, and all we need to know.”  
  
Lucy couldn't really believe what she was hearing. “How do you summon one?”  
  
“By drawing a particular magical circle,” Crux said.  
  
“Do you have to wait for the stars to align or anything?” Lucy said, without much hope. Crux shook his head. The drawings in the book had looked pretty complicated. That would have to take a while, right? Like, a couple hours?  
  
Lucy chewed anxiously on her lower lip and asked the question she didn't really want to know the answer to. “What happens if they do get in?”  
  
“It depends on the nature of the entity summoned,” Crux said. “Epidemics of contagious madness. Physical destruction on a cataclysmic scale. In some cases they seem to-” he hesitated a moment. “- consume the souls, or minds, of anyone in the vicinity when their gate is opened. It may be unintentional, a mere side-effect of their presence, but there's no way to communicate with such a being to ask.” Eiry couldn't be planning to destroy the town, not when she wanted to rule it, and driving everybody mad wouldn't help her either. Lucy chewed on her lower lip and thought about it. Eiry's Thief of Heart magic obviously didn't work on humans. If it did, she would have just mind-controlled Lucy from the start. But would it work on humans after she'd had a monster eat their souls?  
  
“So... I have to stop her,” Lucy said, and swallowed.

* * * 

A little while later, Lucy stared upwards, remembered Eiry's words – It must be remarkable, to be quartered in a building with such a long history – and groaned again. She had gone back to the cave in the forest, levered the rock away from the entrance, and found out where Eiry was hiding out from the Nulshos chained up in the cave. (She'd tried to unchain them. It turned out that she wasn't very good at picking locks.) As it turned out, though, she could have just asked anyone about the oldest house in the area and got the same result without ever having to see that slave trader's mangled body again.  
  
The house was perched atop a rocky crag in the forest. Lucy would have been able to see the top of its tower from Cypress Town's main street if it hadn't been so overgrown. Barely a scrap of stone showed through the smothering ivy, except for the black pits of broken windows. According to the people in the cave, it had once belonged to the local earl, but after the family line had died out it had been taken over by the dark guild that had been chased out fifteen years earlier, and then left to rot. Lucy couldn't guess where Eiry would be. Where could she sneak in? Could she just clamber in through one of the broken windows? Was that too obvious? What if there were pitfall traps full of spikes on the other side? Lucy would definitely have put pitfall traps full of spikes on the other side of the windows if she was Eiry!  
  
Her knuckles white on the ring of her keys, Lucy crept around the edge of the crag towards the back of the house. The back was always easier to break in by, right? But by the time she reached the kitchen, a big square building set off from the rest of the house which completely blocked her way, she hadn't found anything. The kitchen door was sealed with a rusted iron bar. The windows were too high up to scramble in by. Next to the back door, though, there was a place where the earth sloped up in a weirdly diagonal way.  
  
Lucy chewed on her lower lip, puzzling over that, and then realised it was the coal hole. She scraped away the earth above it until she reached the lid. The padlock was rusted shut, but the wooden lid itself was old and rotten. It collapsed under her. Lucy hit the floor with a crash and a shriek, and then the padlock landed on her head. The open trapdoor let in a little dim moonlight, but ahead of her there was nothing but darkness. Lucy pushed herself to her feet and stood still, trying to distinguish something in the blackness. If she took another step, what would she find?  
  
Something skittered across her foot. Lucy ran screaming and crashed into the cellar door. “Ow!”  
  
She felt around it. It wasn't locked. It was only stuck, and the impact of Lucy slamming into it at full speed had jarred it loose. Lucy quickly pretended that was intentional. She hauled the door open, releasing a cloud of dust that made her cough and wheeze, and stumbled through. She passed through the kitchen, where dust swirled in the moonlight that slanted through the small high windows and carpeted the stone floor so thickly that her boots left prints in the dust, and followed a narrow spiral staircase at the far end up into a screened-off passageway. She trod on the edges of the steps, so that they wouldn't creak under her weight. She was beginning to feel almost optimistic. The nauseated feeling in her stomach was fading. Eiry might be a murderous lunatic with mind-control magic and a giant angry bear, but Lucy was an expert at sneaking around big fancy houses! A fly buzzed around her head and she swatted it away.  
  
The screened-off passage opened into the great hall of the house. Lucy could see that it must have been an amazing place once. The fireplaces on each side were massive enough that Lucy could have stretched out in them, the windows were stained glass and three massive chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Above the screens passage there was a musicians' gallery and every wall was decorated with portraits painted on wooden panels. But the windows were broken, the chandeliers were rusted and the eyes of the portraits had been carved out, leaving only dark pits behind. Lucy shuddered, slipped through the screen door and hurried through the hall, trying not to feel those black hole eyes boring into her as she did. She slipped through the double doors leading out of the hall, saw the book and stopped dead with a gasp. She scanned the room quickly. This was the manor's entrance hall. Two curved sweeping staircases led up to an upper gallery directly above her head. At the foot of one of the staircases there was a small dusty table. The book was on the table.  
  
Lucy edged forward, staring upwards, until she was sure she couldn't see anyone on the gallery above, and then made a dash for the book. She scooped it up off the table and clutched it close to her chest. There! Now she just had to get out of the house, and -  
  
Lucy turned around and saw Eiry, standing at the top of the stairs. She yelped and backed away, clutching the book tight in one hand and the keys she barely had the strength to use in the other.  
  
Eiry laughed. “Do you really think that's the real one?”  
  
“...what?” Lucy said faintly.  
  
Eiry began to descend the steps, one hand trailing lightly on the railing. She was holding the book Lucy glanced down at the copy in her arms. How-  
  
“That would be the stellar spirit Andromeda,” Eiry explained. “They take the form of whatever is guaranteed to lure the target. It's derived from the traditional figure of the princess who served as bait for a sea monster so that the hero could kill it... or of the princess who served as bait for the hero so that a sea monster could eat him. The stories differ.” She reached the bottom of the stairs. “But that's quite enough of things you ought to know already. I could have continued combing the town for you, after you escaped Ursa Major, but I thought it would be quicker to have you come to me.”  
  
“Did you tell the people in the cave to send me here?” Lucy demanded.  
  
“Yes,” Eiry said. “And they did, you see? Because they already know which of us will win.”  
  
“Right,” Lucy said, and threw Andromeda at her. It hit Eiry square in the forehead. Lucy was close behind. As Eiry tumbled back onto the steps with a startled cry, Lucy yanked the real book from her arms.  
  
“Open! Gate of the Clock, Horologium!”  
  
Horologium materialised. Lucy whacked Eiry across the face with the spine of the book and flung it over her shoulder. “Horologium! Catch!” The book was sucked into his internal cavity with a pop. “Gate of the Clock! Close!”  
  
“That was qui-” Horologium said, and vanished. Lucy scrambled away up the steps, panting for breath.  
  
Eiry scrabbled to her feet, choking back a snarl. Her elegant updo had unravelled and her white dress was covered in dust and grit from the floor. Then she just covered her mouth with one hand and laughed.  
  
“What?” Lucy demanded.  
  
“I completed the circle half an hour ago,” Eiry said. “I would have cast it by now, if I hadn't been concerned that you would appear halfway through!”  
  
Lucy stared at her, mouth hanging open. Eiry smiled. Lucy swore, and ran. She flew up the stairs, hearing the Canes Venatici howl behind her as she did, and down a gallery where the moon threw squares of light on the floor through the shattered windows.  
  
“Open,” she gasped, “Gate of the Serpent! Serpens!” Serpens materialised. Lucy threw him her keys and yelled “Get them out of here!” He caught the ring in his mouth and dived for one of the holes in the wooden panelling. The keyring jammed on the edges for a moment but Serpens twisted, there was a rattling sound and he was gone. The end of his tail whisked into the hole. One of the hounds snaps its jaws closed on empty air. The other one tackled Lucy to the ground.  
  
Lucy hit the floor and skidded, tearing skin from her knees and palms. For a moment the dog's weight was heavy on her back, and then Eiry grabbed her by the hair and hauled her up. Lucy screamed.  
  
Eiry dragged her back down the gallery and into a room lit with dozens of candles. Lucy screwed up her eyes against the light. “The chapel,” Eiry said. She was breathing heavily. “It's a little crass, but that wasn't my intention. It's simply the easiest to light.”  
  
Lucy cracked her eyes open and squinted around. The glow of the candles overhead gleamed on stained glass windows but showed the cracks in the wall plaster and the moth-eaten holes in the carpets. The altar on the dais at the far end had been covered over with a sheet, and the old pews had been pushed to the sides of the room to leave space for the summoning seal.  
  
Lucy stared at the circle. She couldn't make any sense of it. It was just a tangle of lines and circles and curving trails of dots, and the dull reddish-brown stuff it was painted in-  
  
“Is that blood?” Lucy demanded, and tried to scramble further away from it.  
  
“Yes. Naturally.” Eiry sighed as if the theatrics were rather wearing on her.  
  
“Whose?” Lucy tried to push herself up to her knees.  
  
“You're very talkative,” Eiry said, and whacked her in the stomach with Caelum. Lucy doubled up, wheezing. “Where are your keys?”  
  
“I won't tell you,” Lucy gasped. Where was Serpens? She'd meant for him to go back to the stellar spirit world! “I know what you're doing! You're trying to summon a chthonian and-”  
  
“Hardly,” Eiry cut in. “'Chthonian' means 'of or relating to the underworld'. The correct term is 'outer gods'.”  
  
“Don't act like that's important!” Lucy flared up. “You're planning to feed everyone's souls to a demon so you can control them with magic! That's insane!”  
  
“I'll concede it's a little drastic, but I object to _insane_ ,” Eiry said. “If I were trying to build an enormous sugarcube castle so that I could control people with magic, that would be insane.” She hefted Caelum with both hands, and then brought it down hard across Lucy's back. Lucy doubled over and covered her head with her arms. “Where. Are. Your. Keys?” She punctuated each word with a blow from the flat edge of the chisel.  
  
“I wouldn't tell you if I knew!” Lucy shouted. Her mouth tasted like metal. She thought she'd bitten into her tongue. “This is about your dad, isn't it? He got run out of town so you're avenging him?”  
  
“Shut up!” Eiry barked.  
  
“That's the least of my concerns. I don't have the slightest interest in-” Her face clouded over. “He was an unpleasant man. Always so vulgar, and resentful and controlling-” She broke off and swung Caelum up to rest against her shoulder. “He was a failure. I don't mean to be.”  
  
“You're trying to prove that you're better than him?” Lucy rasped. “Controlling – you're still letting him control you when he's dead! You-”  
  
Eiry hit her again. Lucy doubled up with a cry of pain.  
  
“You talk too much,” Eiry said. “Fine. I'll find your keys later.” She turned to the circle.  
  
“Stop it!” Lucy screamed. There was the rattle of metal falling. Eiry looked over her shoulder with a frown.  
  
“What was that?” Lucy'd recognised it. It was the sound of her keys falling.  
  
Ice water trickled down her spine. Couldn't Serpens just have gone back to the stellar spirit world? What was he doing? It was only when Eiry went to investigate that Lucy realised Serpens was giving her a distraction.  
  
Eiry scanned the room and went out onto the gallery. Lucy dragged herself slowly – agonisingly slowly, glacier slowly – across the floor to the summoning circle. She thought she could hear Eiry coming back. She pressed two fingers to the blood dripping from her mouth and drew on one extra line, and then she clambered back to her feet and staggered away from the circle. She had nearly reached the door when Eiry reopened it. She raised an eyebrow.  
  
“Well, full points for tenacity,” she said, and then swung Caelum straight into Lucy's solar plexus with both hands. Lucy was knocked right off her feet into the wall. She slid down the wall into a heap.  
  
Eiry watched her for a moment to see if she would move again. She didn't.  
  
“Close, Gate of the Chisel,” Eiry said. Caelum shimmered and disappeared. Eiry turned to the circle with grim determination on her face, and then paused. She glanced back.  
  
“What did you say?”  
  
“-changed the circle,” Lucy said, and let out a ragged laugh.  
  
Eiry spun to look at her. The blood drained from her face. “You're lying.”  
  
“'m not!” Lucy levered herself up on one elbow. Eiry... actually looked scared. “Uh,” Lucy said. “So what happens if the summoning goes wrong?”  
  
That was probably something Lucy should have wondered about earlier.  
  
Eiry's mouth set into a hard line. “Do you realise how much I've put into this place? I can't quit now,” she said.  
  
“That's not true! You can stop!” Lucy protested. “You can just not do this! Eiry!”  
  
Eiry ignored her and stepped into the circle. “You wouldn't have had the time.”  
  
“Please, don't!” Lucy screamed. The lines on the floor began to glow.  
  
For a moment it seemed that nothing was happening, and then Lucy became aware of a high persistant whine between her ears, a plucked wire reverberating inside her skull. A foul oily stench trickled down the back of her throat. “What is this?” she rasped. Was this the presence of an Outer God? Did it mean she'd failed?  
  
Of course it did. There was never any alternative. She'd failed, again, and everyone would suffer because she wasn't good enough. She'd never been good enough, she'd never been more than a joke in Phantom Lord, she'd never been good for anything except to be a pretty doll her father could trade off for a business contract – Lucy choked on misery and clutched at her head. What was this despair? It was hard to think, as if she were drunk. The floor shifted under her feet. The world turned around her.  
  
Eiry screamed, and reached for her keys. “Open! Gate of the Lure, Andromeda!” The ball of light that appeared in response wriggled and transformed into... Eiry herself?  
  
“No,” Lucy gasped. She was trying to get the monster to take Andromeda instead of herself!  
  
“... no fair,” Eiry-Andromeda protested weakly, and then screamed and crumpled to the floor. Her back arched like her spine was snapping inside her. Lucy struggled to her hands and knees and crawled towards the circle. “You can't do that!” She lurched and fell into Andromeda. She clutched at the stellar spirit's shoulders. Andromeda convulsed under her hands. Lucy felt... it wasn't feeling, it wasn't anything she could see or hear or smell, but she knew its attention was on them. On Andromeda. She screamed. “No! You can't!” There was a pressure in her head like a vise closing on it. She could hear Eiry screaming but she didn't know if it was Eiry or Andromeda.  
  
“No,” Lucy wailed again, but it was hopeless, she was yelling into a storm, there was nothing she could do to save Andromeda, there was nothing she could do to save herself, and Lucy collapsed under the weight of the insane misery that was lacerating deep wounds into her soul... and exposing the steel at its core.  
  
“NO! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!” Lucy dragged herself back to her knees. “I'm a mage of Phantom Lord's First Division! You have no idea what you're fucking with!” Andromeda was a deadweight slumped against her. Lucy couldn't see anything but the chapel and candlelight, but she knew what was there. Her eyes were only lying to her; she closed them tight and understood. The thing here, filling up the chapel like noxious smoke, sliding into her lungs with every breath, was barely a fragment of a vast whole like a stream running to an unfathomably deep ocean. On the other side of the gate lay an abyss.  
  
Fine.  
  
Lucy slammed the gate closed, and severed the connection. The glow of the circle died. A high piercing noise rang through her head, the sound of a nail on a chalkboard infinitely extended, as the remnant of the outer god convulsed. Lucy raked her hands through the air, fingers hooked into claws, and felt her magic snag on the monster's remains. It felt strangely familiar - almost like a stellar spirit, a thing that was made only of magic. She could feel it struggling to escape her grip. Lucy dragged it inside her own power. It was like swallowing poison; she could feel dull inhuman tendrils reaching into the core of her magic and the sour taste of oil rising in the back of her throat. She grit her teeth and buried the thing in her power, smothered it like quicksand and slowly, inexorably, like a cigarette stub under her boot heel, she ground it out of existence.  
  
Lucy opened her eyes and breathed in clean untainted air. In her arms, Andromeda shuddered and dissolved into starlight. Lucy shut her eyes and, very slowly, fell over.

* * * 

Lucy woke up, rolled over with a sleepy yawn, and saw Eiry. She was still lying in the circle, unmoving. Lucy clambered to her feet – ow, her spine, this was why people had invented mattresses – and crept over to her, ready to run if Eiry so much as breathed funny.  
  
She was breathing, but her eyes were closed. Lucy poked her in the ribs. Eiry didn't react. Lucy opened Eiry's eyes. She lay there, staring at nothing, without blinking. Lucy closed Eiry's eyes again and took her keys from her belt. The Canes Venatici helped her find her keyring, in one of the dustiest most cobwebbed cracks in the walls. Lucy offered them their own key in exchange.  
  
They decided she could keep it, and went back to the stellar spirit world. Lucy scrubbed a hand across her eyes, because the dust was making them water.  
  
After a moment's hesitation, she pulled down one of the moth-eaten curtains and settled it over Eiry's body and under her head. Then she left. She walked back into town and, for lack of any better idea, back to the cafe.  
  
“I'm sorry, we're not open yet,” said the young man putting out the tables. Lucy walked straight past him and let herself in. “Hello!” she greeted the cafe manager, with a happy wave. He dropped an entire tray of glasses. “I'm not dead!"  
  
Lucy dropped the cheer. “Eiry's not going to be a problem any more. That'll be three hundred thousand jewel, please.”  
  
The manager goggled at her. “I don't have that kind of money!”  
  
Lucy was not remotely in the mood for a long argument, so she decided to take a page out of Gajeel's book instead. She hooked a chair with her foot, dragged it over, sat down and put her feet up on a table. The manager opened his mouth to protest. Lucy folded her arms and fixed him with a cold glare. “Find me someone who does.”  
  
The cafe manager obeyed. When he came back, he brought a gaggle of people with tousled hair and crumpled suits. The foremost of them was a tall grey-haired man with a thin desiccated face. He looked like a mummy animated with dark magic. Lucy had seen a lot of accountants, though, and that was normal for them. Lucy continued clicking Eiry's keys onto her own keyring and murmuring to herself. “...Caelum, Auriga, Ursa Minor – that explains that – Musca, Ursa Major-” She broke off and looked up.  
  
“You the people with my money?”  
  
“She's got Eiry's keys,” one of them whispered, and the rest of the formed a frightened little huddle.  
  
The accountant sat opposite her. “Good morn-”  
  
“Cut out the small talk,” Lucy growled.  
  
“Very well.” He steepled his fingers. “As I understand it, you came here in response to a request placed by Mrs Leviva Nulsho. Sadly, Mrs Nulsho and her family are missing and presumed dead. You cannot expect to be paid for a job when the requester is deceased.”  
  
“The Nulshos are in a cave next to the cliff with the tire swing,” Lucy said. She thought about asking for some metal to eat but then remembered she couldn't actually do that.  
  
“Alive?”  
  
“Last I checked,” Lucy drawled. “Ya dried-up bastard. Gihihihi!” ...that just sounded ridiculous. How did Gajeel laugh like that without sounding ridiculous? Was it just that he was seven feet tall and carrying a ton of metal around in his face? Because if so Lucy thought that was cheating.  
  
Lucy dropped the Gajeel act and said flatly, “I don't care who placed the request. I wouldn't care if they were dead. I won't leave until I get paid, and if you thought Eiry was bad you have _no idea_ how nasty Phantom Lord mages can get.”  
  
“I see,” the accountant said slowly. “Still, she isn't likely to have that much money to hand-”  
  
“She should have thought of that before she posted the reward, then,” Lucy said. “It's not my problem.”  
  
“Would you accept payment in instalments?”  
  
Instead of answering, Lucy drummed her fingers impatiently on Ursa Major's key. The accountant wilted. “...I'll have the money collected and brought here.”  
  
“Plus an extra five hundred jewel,” Lucy added. “I need a new hat.”

* * * 

Lucy dropped her ice knuckleduster into a tall glass of water and set it at the opposite end of the table. Little waves slopped over the rim of the glass with the rocking motion of the train. Lucy settled back into her seat. Her back was resting against a bag containing exactly three hundred thousand five hundred jewel. She'd tipped off the soldiers in Box Town about Eiry; Lucy didn't know if she'd end up in a hospital or a mental institution, but so long as she didn't starve to death lying on the floor in the chapel Lucy thought she'd done her bit. Serpens was coiled around her, basking in her body heat. Lucy stroked his head gently. She was thinking about partnership and about how jealous she'd been, and she'd decided that she'd been wrong. Lucy'd never worked alone even one day since she'd left home. Her spirits were always with her, and they'd never let her down. Weren't they her real partners? Everyone else in Phantom Lord was just people who happened to be in her same guild, and Lucy wouldn't let her spirits get hurt to help them. And if anyone had a problem with that, then Taurus could axe them in the face.  
  
She focused her attention on the ice knuckleduster and slowly fed power into its magical reservoir. Slow, slow, careful, don't just bludgeon it with power – There was an audible creak, and the water froze solid.  
  
Lucy tipped her head back against the window of the train, closed her eyes and – for the first time in a long time – she smiled.


	7. Highly Illegal

Rain trickled down the back of Lucy's neck. She was standing in the yard at the back of the guildhall, facing off with another first-divisioner. He was a tall young man, maybe a couple of years older than her, with a red crewcut and cutoff jeans, and he thought having young blonde ladies with excellent figures around made Phantom look like a joke. 'Young blonde ladies with excellent figures' was not the phrase he'd used. Well, Lucy couldn't allow people to disrespect her like that, could she?  
  
The rest of Oak Town branch was standing around the walls, watching. Gajeel cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled “Get on with it!”  
  
Lucy spun her keys in her hand. “Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum! Sword Form!” Caelum's hilt dropped into her outstretched palm. The red-haired mage stamped one of his bare feet against the ground. “Material Absorption: Concrete!” His body bulged and distorted. His skin turned rough and grey.  
  
“Oh man, this is going to be tragic,” Sue said, and broke out the popcorn.  
  
Lucy sliced a key through the air with her free hand. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”  
  
Taurus appeared, bellowing. “Miss Lucy's figure is the best!”  
  
“I know! Can you believe this jerk doesn't agree?” Lucy said, and pointed. “Taurus, cut him down to size!”  
  
Taurus charged. The absorption mage raised both hands, index fingers extended like guns. “Elemental Darts!” Shards of concrete blasted from his fingertips. Taurus deflected them with his axe and the shards buried themselves an inch deep in the wall of the guildhall instead.  
  
Taurus swung his axe at the absorption mage's head. The absorption mage grabbed the blade of the axe as Taurus brought it whistling down and tried to yank it out of his hands. It bit shards from his hands.  
  
“Concrete can't beat iron!” Lucy shouted at him.  
  
“This is the Iron Dragon's branch!” he yelled back. “You think we don't have enough iron around?” He let go of the axe and fired off a volley of concrete shards that Lucy dived flat to avoid.  
  
The absorption mage raced for the other end of the yard, where there was an iron girder propped up against the wall. Lucy wailed dramatically and clutched at her face. The absorption mage grabbed the iron girder. “Element Absorption: Iron!” The upper layers of his concrete skin exploded into powder and were replaced by smooth metal. He laughed and clenched his hands into fists. “Want to try that axe now, cow man?”  
  
Lucy laughed, too, and let the moment of surprise stretch out a little longer before she said “Andromeda, change target! Sue!” There was some loud swearing and a fine spray of popcorn shrapnel from Sue's direction, and then the iron girder turned into a slice of strawberry cake. The iron mage staggered as his metal skin turned into fluffy icing rapidly dissolving in the rain. Strawberries studded his face like Gajeel's piercings.  
  
"Is it just me who wants to eat that guy's head right now?" Sue said.  
  
"Yeah, it's just you," said Bozo.  
  
Lucy waded in with the flat edge of Caelum's blade. With every blow whipped cream splattered the floor of the yard and soon Caelum was stained red with strawberry juice. Lucy knocked the cake mage's knees out from under him and put her boot between his shoulderblades as he sprawled face-down on the floor. She leant on Caelum.  
  
“Which of us is the joke, again?”  
  
The cake mage just groaned.  
  
Well, Lucy considered that an overwhelming victory. “Woo!” She high-fived Taurus. “Andromeda, leave target!” Andromeda returned to what Lucy thought was her default form, a brown-skinned little girl with long dark hair, a white dress and chains wound around her arms and upper body. Lucy offered her a high-five as well. Andromeda looked at Lucy, and then down at the chains pinning her arms to her chest. Lucy gave her a hug instead.  
  
“Great job, both of you!” She dismissed Andromeda and Caelum, and swaggered back to Gajeel and Sue. “I set that up half an hour ago,” she bragged.  
  
“Huh,” Gajeel growled. “Can't you win a fight without half an hour to plan it, princess?”  
  
“Well, I didn't expect you to appreciate anything more complicated than 'see guy, hit guy',” Lucy said with a pout. Gajeel swung a casual punch at her; it sailed through the air a foot above her head.  
  
“Hey,” Lucy said, mildly annoyed. She hadn't bothered to duck.  
  
“Run your mouth off again and I'll hit you properly next time,” Gajeel growled.  
  
“Okay, okay,” Lucy said, and stepped back with her hands raised. “Sheesh...” That was when she realised there was a woman she didn't recognise standing on Gajeel's other side. She had blue hair curled into a perfect circle at the ends, she wore a long navy coat trimmed with fur and she was the only person in the yard who'd thought to bring an umbrella with her. Lucy tipped her head on one side. “Who's this?” With that smart coat and that coolly blank expression she looked like she ought to be in charge of something. A visiting subdivision head or something?  
  
“Juvia, this's some blonde princess,” Gajeel drawled. “There's no food out here, I'm going inside.” He kicked the back door open and went in out of the rain.  
  
Lucy blanched. “...Juvia of the _Deep_?” She was one of the Element Four! She was the strongest female mage in Phantom Lord!  
  
“Good morning,” Juvia said. “Juvia is very pleased to meet you.” She was looking at Lucy oddly. Lucy frantically tried to figure out what she was doing wrong.  
  
“Good morning!” she said, her voice much higher than usual. “I'm Lucy Ashley! It's nice to meet you too!”  
  
“Is work going well?” Juvia inquired.  
  
“Aye!” Lucy chirped. Wait, what? Why did she say _aye_? Was her brain melting out of her ears? “Well, it's been lovely talking to you, I really hope we can do it again sometime-”  
  
“Juvia is about to go on a mission that Lucy can help with, actually,” Juvia said. “Juvia would be very happy if Lucy joined her.”  
  
“Oh,” Lucy said. “Uh. That's not... I don't think...”  
  
An hour later she was sitting in a train carriage bound for Brownian Town with Juvia of the Deep.  
  
How had _that_ happened?! She had so much she needed to do! Well not so much to do considering that the job in Cypress Town had paid her bills for the next few months, but she'd wanted to write a few more chapters and another letter to her mother now that she could send her good news without lying, and she wanted to work on making friends with Ursa Major some more – it was a complicated process, which mostly consisted of throwing Ursa Minor at the Great Bear and then hiding while Ursa Major yelled at her to back off or die or, the last few days, that she was too skinny and needed to eat some damn food. (Lucy kind of wanted to summon Ursa Major and Aquarius together and watch them fight about whether she was too fat or too skinny.)  
  
She pulled a book from her bag and lifted it up to cover her face. What could she do? It wasn't like she even wanted to be on this mission. It wasn't like she even knew what the mission-  
  
“Juvia is reading that book, too!”  
  
“Really?” Lucy said, astonished, and looked at the front of the book to make sure it hadn't changed. Juvia of the Deep was into romance novels?  
  
“Yes!” Juvia nodded, and added “Juvia thinks Mr Darcy is very nice.”  
  
Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Oooh, you like them bossy and aloof, do you?” Juvia went pink. Lucy giggled. “But wasn't he awful to Wickham?”  
  
Juvia's face darkened. “Juvia thinks Mr Wickham is up to nothing good. Juvia does not trust him.”  
  
“What? I think he seems like fun,” Lucy said.  
  
“Juvia thinks he is planning something,” Juvia said. “Juvia thinks he is planning to shame Elizabeth's family so that she and Mr Darcy can never be together!” She shook her head violently. “Unforgivable! Unforgivable!” The rain battered at the windows as if in answer.  
  
“If he didn't want Elizabeth and Darcy to get together, couldn't he just let Darcy keep talking?” Lucy murmured, but not loudly enough that Juvia could hear her. Obviously when it came to romance the Element Four mage had a highly overactive imagination. Lucy smiled a little and changed the subject. “So what's this mission about?”  
  
Juvia snapped back to all-business so fast it gave Lucy whiplash. “Three Blue Pegasus mages are attempting to complete a mission within Phantom Lord's territory, and a duo from Subdivision Fourteen who wish to be promoted to First Division have been assigned to stop them. Juvia will be observing.”  
  
Lucy scrunched up her face. “So this is, like, an exam?” Wasn't attacking members of another guild illegal? Juvia must have a really good plan to deal with that. “So what am I doing here?”  
  
“Attacking members of another guild is highly illegal. It's very important that somebody make sure no blame can settle on Phantom Lord, should something go wrong.”  
  
“And you'll be... busy?”  
  
“Juvia will be observing,” Juvia said primly.  
  
Lucy _observed_ that Juvia was getting a better deal there.  
  
When they arrived at Brownian Town, Lucy wandered out of the station to look around while Juvia waited inside for the mages from Subdivision Fourteen. Gulls shrieked overhead and a sea wind made the awnings of the shops flap. The streets were narrow and the buildings on either side were taller than the ones in Oak Town, so that they cut out everything except a strip of dull grey cloud.  
  
Lucy bought herself an umbrella in a corner shop, because the rainclouds overhead didn't look as if they were going anywhere. She lingered over a cute blue Heart Kreuz model but finally sighed and plumped for a plain dark green one. Outside, a hill with a railing overlooked the sea and the roofs of the town. Lucy opened her umbrella and leant on the railing.  
  
She realised very suddenly that someone was standing behind her. She whirled around. There were two men standing behind her, and one had a knife at her throat.  
  
The two of them and the railing at her back cut off any escape. Lucy glanced between them. They were both curly-haired and wearing tank tops. “No funny business, baby, just hand over your purse,” one of them drawled.  
  
Lucy stepped forward and through them. They flickered out.  
  
“Show yourself!” she yelled. “Guys wearing vests in this weather, was that supposed to fool me?”  
  
“Tch,” someone said. Lucy looked around quickly, but didn't see  
  
“Don't whine, she got you,” said someone else. Two mages emerged from behind an illusionary veil – it looked as if they'd stepped out of thin air – and stood glowering at her. “Who're you, then?” The shorter one had a Phantom Lord guild mark on his forearm. Lucy's own stamp was covered up; thanks to the rain, she was wearing the only actual sweatshirt she owned. She looked appallingly unstylish, but then nobody else looked any better so Lucy had almost given up caring.  
  
“I'm a mage of Phantom Lord's First Division,” Lucy snapped, “which means I ask the questions! Are you the guys from Fourteen?” She folded her arms and glared at them. They bristled.  
  
“So what if we are?” the taller of the two countered. He had spiky dark-blue hair that added a few more inches to his height, and a heavy gold chain around his neck apparently to make his standard Phantom uniform of dark red shirt, dark pants and fur-trimmed jacket more unique. The other pushed his shaggy charcoal-grey hair out of his eyes, stuck his hands in his pockets and bounced on the balls of his feet. He nearly vibrated with nervous energy.  
  
“Do you want to fight?” he demanded. He spoke so quickly it took Lucy a second to work out what he'd said. “There's two of us and one of you. You want to go for it?”  
  
Lucy couldn't back down from a pair of subdivision mages! She reached for her keys.  
  
“Drip, drip, drop,” Juvia murmured. Lucy yanked her hand back from her keys and pretended she was never reaching for them in the first place.  
  
“Juvia was expecting to meet you inside the station,” Juvia said to the subdivisioners.  
  
“Yeah, well, we were waiting out here and we saw her wandering around so we... figured we'd... we were only having a joke,” the tall one said. He'd started out all aggressive and then his voice petered out under Juvia's stare. “Who is she, anyway?”  
  
“This is Lucy Ashley,” Juvia said. She didn't elaborate on what Lucy was doing there.  
  
Lucy folded her arms again. “So who are you?”  
  
“I'm Byrrick,” the tall one said.  
  
“Osmurand. Osmurand Sais. I'm a water mage,” the shorter one said. “I like water cannons.” He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet again and shot Juvia a sidelong look. Byrrick must be the illusionist, then.  
  
Juvia looked them over, looked around – there was nobody out, of course, because who would want to be out in this rain? - and without any preamble began to brief the three of them.  
  
“Two days ago, three Blue Pegasus mages arrived in this town. They haven't departed by train, by ship or through the city gates, according to the informants Master Jose maintains in this town. Nor has anything been reported which would suggest that they have completed their mission. It is not known what that mission is, but they seem to have been following reports of fraudulent vegetables.”  
  
“Fraudulent vegetables?” Byrrick repeated in disbelief. “God, that's boring. They couldn't be doing something interesting, like stealing magical artifacts?”  
  
“What do you mean, fraudulent vegetables?” Lucy said.  
  
“A person is selling vegetables which subsequently disappear,” Juvia said.  
  
Byrrick was right. That was boring.  
  
Seriously, fraudulent vegetables.  
  
“Your priorities should be to find the Blue Pegasus mages and discover what they're trying to do,” Juvia reminded them all coolly. “You may need to complete their mission after you incapacitate them.”  
  
Lucy scrunched up her face. So they were chasing some sort of creation-magic mage? Byrrick was thinking hard, too.  
  
“Where's the market in this craphole?” he said.

* * * 

Brownian Town's market was in a covered gallery. Overhead, the rain beat down on acres of glass supported by massive iron beams. Below, Lucy shook her umbrella off and furled it. There were stalls selling fruit and vegetables, butchers' stalls, and dozens of fishmongers. There were even traders from foreign countries hawking carved ivory from Iceberg and intricately-woven rugs from Desierto. There were a lot of soldiers around, too. Everywhere Lucy looked she saw blue and yellow stripes. The subdivisioners were glowering, but Lucy wasn't sure if that was because they were still annoyed about the fraudulent vegetables or because like most Phantom mages their faces had just got stuck like that after a while.   
  
She tried to make conversation. "This is gloomy, isn't it?" If she were them, she would take it as a bad omen. "It was raining like this in Oak Town this morning, too."  
  
The two subdivisioners looked at her like she was stupid. "Yeah, it was raining in Oak Town this morning," Byrrick said. "You do know it's Juvia behind it, right?"  
  
"What?" Lucy blinked at him.  
  
"Juvia makes it rain everywhere she goes. Everyone knows that." Nobody'd told Lucy that. Whenever Sue or Bozo was talking about Juvia of the Deep, they tended to look over their shoulder for Gajeel, look at Ryos, and then carefully refrain from saying anything uncomplimentary. Why would Juvia want to do that? It didn't seem friendly.   
  
"I like it," Osmurand said. "Ammo, yeah?" He elbowed through the crowd to a greengrocer's stall and leant over it. “Are these vegetables legit?” he demanded.  
  
“...what?” said the stallkeeper.  
  
Osmurand jabbed a finger at a tub of cauliflowers. “Are these like fraudulent vegetables? Are they real, is what?”  
  
“...just what the hell are you accusing me of?” the stallkeeper demanded. “They're cauliflowers!”  
  
Byrrick stomped up behind Osmurand and whacked him across the back of the head. “We're Phantom Lord mages, so don't bother yelling for the soldiers,” he told the stallkeeper. “What do you know about a gang of Blue Pegasus guys hanging around here?”  
  
The stallkeeper looked very much about to call the soldiers. Lucy hurriedly slunk away. If they wanted to get in trouble they were welcome, but she didn't want to join them. The soldiers standing around looked keyed-up enough that they might even try to arrest the pair of them.  
  
Lucy sidled up to the one who looked most bored. He was leaning against a wall and idly scratching the back of his neck through his coif. “Hey,” she greeted him, faking ignorance, “why are there so many of you around today?” He frowned at her. Lucy twiddled a strand of hair around her fingers. “I only got here yesterday, I'm just visiting my gran. I didn't hear anything about this being, like, a high crime area-”  
  
“It's not!” the soldier corrected her. “Brownian's a good place. There's some _out-of-towner_ around, causing trouble.” He scowled and looked the crowd over as if he might be able to pick the troublemaker out by his barbarian horned helmet.  
  
“No!” Lucy said, and dropped her voice to a sultry murmur. “What's going on?”  
  
The soldier stopped glowering and just frowned at her. “You don't sound well. Do you need a drink?”  
  
“...no, I'm good, thanks,” Lucy said. Why did her feminine wiles never work? Maybe he was gay. Maybe _all_ of them were gay. “So what's going on?”  
  
“We've heard they're a highly dangerous mage,” the soldier told her. “There's a few people prowling around today who'll recognise them, though. It'll probably turn into a fight. You'd be best off running home to your grandma.” He looked around. Lucy could see him mentally totting up the number of people there and the number of exits and rehearsing the evacuation plan in his head. Then he swore.  
  
“What is it?” Lucy asked, and became abruptly aware that the noise had changed, gone from the omnipresent rapidfire babble of haggling and gossip to focused on the centre of the market. The other two had done something stupid, hadn't they? She scrambled onto the next stall over's tall pile of Desiertan rugs, ignoring the merchant's complaints, and straightened up to see over the crowd. A space had cleared and the crowd was hurriedly scrambling away from it. The soldier was already gone. Lucy jumped down and shoved a path through the throng towards the circle of empty space.  
  
What she saw when she emerged into it was a shopkeeper hanging onto a redheaded youth, a trio of young women and the soldiers fanning out to surround them.  
  
The young man shook off the shopkeeper, looked between the soldiers and the young women (the Blue Pegasus mages?) and said “Aw, hell, this ain't going to be much fun.”  
  
“Finally!” the leader of the young women barked. She had round pink cheeks and brown hair in braids, and she wore a blue-and-pink tunic with laced sandals. She kept a flute in a sheath on her belt like a sword, and her teeth were bared. “Do you know how long we've been chasing you, Vanderwood?” _Definitely_ the Blue Pegasus mages. And this was the guy they'd been hunting for? Why? He didn't look like much. Ginger hair, big blue eyes, freckles, good-looking in a farmboy sort of way. Lucy looked at the Blue Pegasus mages. One of the other two had deep brown skin, cornrowed hair and vast sky-blue eyes; she wore a star-patterned kimono jacket with a miniskirt and balanced nervously on one foot with the fingers of her other hand pressed to her mouth. The other was anonymous in a long dark hooded robe and unadorned tragedy mask. She stood silently with her hands clasped behind her back.  
  
“It wasn't never my intention to be causing you ladies any inconvenience,” Vanderwood said.  
  
“Good job with that, turnip boy,” their leader growled. She was looking around. “So where is-”  
  
“Water Cannon!”  
  
Lucy yelped. The Blue Pegasi's leader leapt backwards out of the way of the blast of water, which sent a pair of soldiers flying. The crowd scattered, shrieking. The rest of the soldiers fell back. Lucy couldn't blame them. None of them would be mages; any mage who wanted to join the military would go for the Rune Knights, who paid a lot better.  
  
“Who the hell are you?” the leader demanded.  
  
“We're Phantom Lord,” Byrrick sneered, “and you're in our territory here. Who the hell do you think you are?” Had he seriously just... he'd seriously just announced that they were Phantom mages in front of two dozen soldiers! Lucy groaned. What was he thinking? Didn't he realise how illegal this was?! Osmurand hadn't even covered up his Phantom stamp!  
  
“You have no idea who you're screwing with, do you?” their leader demanded. “We're the Muses of Blue Pegasus, asshole! Euterpe, Urania and Melpomene!”  
  
Oooh! Lucy'd read a review of one of their gigs in Weekly Sorceror! Euterpe of the Flute, Urania of the Heavens – that must be the one in the star-patterned kimono – and Melpomene the bass guitarist! That last one wasn't especially helpful as nicknames went.  
  
“Never heard of you,” Byrrick said.  
  
“Is that supposed to be scary?” Osmurand asked. “Are we supposed to be scared?”  
  
“What the hell is that, a flute?” Byrrick said, gesturing to the instrument hanging from Euterpe's belt. “Music magic's shit, it's only good for support.”  
  
Euterpe bristled.  
  
“More like Eu _derp_ e,” Osmurand said. “Hahaha. Because her name sounds like derp.”  
  
“Yeah, Os, I got that,” Byrrick said.  
  
“...oh screw this, let's just kick their asses,” Euterpe said. Urania stretched out her arms, crossed at the wrists.  
  
“Meteor Pursuit!” Darts of yellow light burst from her hands and shot after Osmurand. Osmurand called up a shield of water, and when the glowing darts hit it it exploded into steam that billowed through the market, obscuring everything. Lucy fumbled for her keys and whispered urgently “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”  
  
“Miss Lucy! Your body looks-” Taurus's bellow reverberated off the walls. “...where are you?”  
  
“Taurus! Don't say anything!” Lucy yelled.  
  
Green light sliced through the fog, Taurus yelled, and there was a crash that sounded very much like Taurus landing on a market stall and splintering it into dust. The steam cleared just long enough for Lucy to see Taurus hauling himself up out of the wreckage of a florist's stall with a garland of flowers looped over one of his horns, and Melpomene charging up green energy around her hands, before Byrrick shouted “Veil of Illusion!” and everything was drowned out by grey fog. “What are you doing?” Lucy wailed. He didn't have to cast it on her, too!  
  
“Won't help!” Urania sang out. “Meteor Pursuit!”  
  
Yellow flashed in the corners of Lucy's eyes. The impact flung her off her feet, knocked the air out of her lungs and left her wheezing on the floor twenty feet away. Homing magic? Euterpe blew a single high note which cut through the fog and sliced Byrrick's spell to pieces. The illusion collapsed. What was left of it looked like wandering threadbare grey bedsheets.  
  
Byrrick swore, dropped to one knee and pressed one palm against the ground. “Black Wyvern Summon!” A magical seal blossomed around his hand and billowed smoke. A massive green monster rose out of the ground and turned solid. For a moment Lucy thought Byrrick had really summoned something, until the wyvern tried to move and its limbs lost all connection to its body. Its tail hung in the air three feet above its back and its huge feet with their disemboweling claws slid off to the right of its body. Urania let out a peal of delighted laughter, raced through the illusion and slammed her open hand into Byrrick's face. “Heaven Palm!” The impact hurled Byrrick off his feet. He hit the ground, rolled, and lay limp like a rag doll.  
  
Euterpe was playing a song that made everything look shaky. Lucy could barely focus on her. Osmurand's water blasts were missing by miles. He cursed and started firing Water Cannons wildly in Euterpe's general direction. Market stalls splintered under the assault. “Heaven's Shield!” Urania shouted. A golden seal bloomed in front of her just in time to catch one of the water blasts. Euterpe ducked behind it with her.  
  
Whatever spell Euterpe had cast, it had affected Taurus as well. When he swung his axe at Melpomene it sailed harmlessly over her head. She stepped in close as Taurus swung his axe back to strike again and hit him in the gut with a fistful of green energy. The blast threw Melpomene back and flung Taurus, all two hundred and fifty pounds of Taurus, into the air and into one of the iron girders holding up the ceiling. “Gate of the Bull! Close!” Lucy shouted before he could hit the ground. Melpomene half-turned and swiped one hand casually through the air, releasing an arc of green energy that slammed into Osmurand right under the ribs. He crashed through a stall and didn't get up again.  
  
“Thanks, Mel!” Urania called, and dispelled her shield.  
  
That left Lucy, all alone, against the three of them. “Gate of the Chisel, open!” Caelum dropped into her hands. Lucy spun to gain momentum and flung it upwards. Caelum smashed through the ceiling. Glass shards fell like rain. Lucy ran for cover and dived under a market stall just in time to hear a dozen sharp fragments thud into the wood above her head. Through a crack in the stall front, she saw Melpomene throw up a crackling green shield that consumed all the glass falling towards the Muses.  
  
Euterpe straightened up and looked around. “Where'd she go?”  
  
“Oh!” Urania said, and pointed. Lucy tensed, but she wasn't pointing towards Lucy. “Frank ran away!”  
  
“What?” Euterpe wheeled around. “Dammit!” She slammed her fist against her other palm. “It's my fault. I should have-”  
  
“There was no helping it. They attacked us.” The quiet voice issued from the darkness behind Melpomene's mask.  
  
“Well-” Euterpe threw her hands up in frustration. “Let's go, quick. Someone outside might have seen which way he went.” They left.  
  
Lucy wriggled out from behind the stall, stood and looked around. Rain was coming through the holes in the ceiling, and her brand-new umbrella was lying on the floor. She had landed on it when Urania's Meteor Pursuit had thrown her off her feet, and two of the ribs had snapped. Also lying on the floor were Byrrick and Osmurand, who had been incredibly lucky not to have been shredded by the falling glass unless Melpomene had shielded them as well. The soldiers were mostly fallen in a heap near the closest exit. Lucy lifted her head and scanned the market. Juvia was standing well back, observing. She was almost perfectly hidden behind a rack of scarves, that is unless you noticed the big pink umbrella sticking up above it. Juvia stepped out from behind the rack and walked purposefully towards Lucy, her heels click-clacking on the floor. Lucy ground her teeth together and turned to face her, fists clenched, ready for an argument.  
  
“Will your cow man make a full recovery?” Juvia asked.  
  
Lucy stuttered, caught off her guard. “Y-yes? Taurus is really strong, he wouldn't be badly hurt just from that!”  
  
“Juvia is pleased.” Juvia looked around at the wreckage and said, “Juvia thinks this could have gone better.” She looked at Lucy.  
  
“Um,” Lucy said. “Yes?” Juvia was still looking at her. Was this some sort of test? There wasn't anything they could have done except attack them, and even though that Vanderwood guy had got away that was better than having him captured by the Muses. “They should have targeted the support mage first, and they definitely shouldn't have said they were in Phantom Lord?” Lucy guessed. Juvia nodded. Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief.  
  
“Of course, Lucy could have advised them not to identify themselves as Phantom mages the first time that they did it,” Juvia added.  
  
“What?” Lucy protested. “I'm not obligated to save them from their mistakes!”  
  
“Lucy is correct that she has no obligation to them,” Juvia said, “but she is responsible for the success of the mission. Juvia is required to not intervene except in the direst circumstances. Lucy is expected to help.”  
  
Lucy bit back an angry response and ducked her head. “...fine. I'm sorry.” Rain dripped off the end of her nose.  
  
“Juvia does not mean to be rude,” Juvia said. “Juvia thinks Lucy did well in the fight.”  
  
Lucy _hmf_ ed, stalked over to the gutter and scooped up a stray turnip.  
  
“Open, Gate of the Hunting Hounds! Canes Venatici!”  
  
Misha and Boo (well, she'd had to name them something, right?) appeared in a flash and a burst of smoke. Misha barked in wild excitement and tried to climb up Lucy. Boo sat down and tried to pretend he didn't know Misha.  
  
“Hey! Hey, calm down-” Lucy petted Misha's head. She immediately fell on the ground and rolled over to have her belly rubbed. Lucy obliged. Misha's tail wagged so hard it nearly fell off.  
  
“What are you doing?” Juvia asked. Lucy ignored her and showed Boo the turnip instead.  
  
“Could you find the guy who conjured this up?”  
  
Misha scrambled up, sniffed the turnip, shot off, collided with a fishmonger's stall and fell over. Boo sniffed the turnip and headed with grim determination for the exit. Lucy followed Boo. Juvia followed Lucy to the exit, but Lucy didn't look back. The hounds led her through a maze of narrow streets. Boo trotted a little way ahead, and Misha alternated between tearing off far into the distance and racing back to Lucy's side. Lucy stopped briefly to buy another umbrella, not that it would help much considering her clothes were already soaked, her hair was plastered to her skull and her boots squelched with every step. The streets the hounds led her through grew narrower and the high buildings on either side seemed to lean over her. Finally they stopped outside a narrow, battered, run-down building. Rain sputtered from a blocked gutter. Several of the windows were broken and boarded up; one set of boards was painted with the slogan FETTER LANE LODGING HOUSE REASONABLE RATES.  
  
Lucy thought that 'reasonable rates' would have to mean that they'd pay people to stay there.  
  
“Are you sure?” she asked Misha and Boo. Misha yipped with excitement. Boo sat by the front door and waited for her. Lucy groaned, and kicked the front door open. She wasn't about to touch it with her hands. It opened into a narrow hallway stained with cigarette smoke. Even the light from the bare electric bulb seemed to have a brown tinge to it. Boo slid past her and trotted inside and up a flight of twisting rickety stairs. Lucy followed him with a grimace. An old woman stuck her head around a door at the far end of the hallway and hollered “You don't live here!”  
  
“Just visiting!” Lucy yelled. Misha galloped after her.  
  
“And no pets!” the woman roared.  
  
“They're not pets,” Lucy called back, and kept going. On the third floor Boo stopped outside a particular door. Misha joined him and barked wildly, apparently to get Lucy's attention in case she hadn't noticed it.  
  
“What was that?” someone said, and Vanderwood opened the door. The sleeves of his checked shirt were rolled up. That revealed a Blue Pegasus guild stamp on his left forearm. That explained...  
  
Lucy was actually not sure what that explained. Frank followed her gaze and instinctively covered the mark with his other hand.  
  
“...anyway,” Lucy said. “Hi! Can I come in?” She was gripping her keys tightly behind her back. 'Highly dangerous mage', the soldier had said, even if he did look like a total doofball. What'd he done, kill someone and feed them to his pigs?  
  
“I'm thinking I remember you being with those Phantom Lords, ma'am,” Frank said.  
  
“Yup! I'm Lucy Ashley. Do you want to make a deal?”  
  
“A deal?” Frank repeated, puzzled. “What sort of a deal?”  
  
Lucy ignored that. “May I come in?”  
  
Frank glanced around and then stepped back to let Lucy in. Lucy slid inside and scanned the room. It was a small room, holding only a double bed with rumpled sheets, a small window looking out onto a brick wall, and a door to a bathroom or a cupboard, which was left ajar. There was hardly enough space to swing Caelum or her whip, if she tried to summon Taurus his horns might crash through the ceiling, and it was Cancer's day off. Behind her back, she closed her fingers tight around Serpens' key. Frank stayed standing, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, and after a moment Lucy realised it was because she hadn't sat down.  
  
“You're trying to get out of Fiore, right?” she asked. “We can help with that.”  
  
“Begging your pardon, ma'am,” Frank said, “but I don't see as how you can, when the Muses have got people watching every way out of this place, and I can't see as why you would, either.”  
  
“We're not doing it just to help you out,” Lucy said. “The Muses came into our territory, so we'd be trying to stop them whatever they were doing. And anyway, it's not like it's a problem for us if a Blue Pegasus mage wants to cause trouble and flee the country.” Her grin was bright and conspiratorial. “You don't get to be the number-one guild without sabotaging the competition a little!”  
  
“That's mighty kind of you, ma'am,” Frank said, proving that even farmboys could master irony. “But I don't see as how you'd be planning to do such a thing.”  
  
“The ferry port,” Lucy said. She was glad she'd flicked through some leaflets in the train station. As well as the commercial docks, Brownian Town had a ferry port that ran a service to the town of Vaish in Seven every morning. “We'll sneak in overnight, you stow away in a lifeboat or something and then when the ferry leaves you're home free... well, not home, maybe, but definitely free.”  
  
“There's four guards who watch the security checkpoint overnight, and Euterpe'll have paid them off to tell her they see so much as a peep of us,” Frank said. “And if we caused any sort of a ruckus they would just stop the ferries running.” _We_ , Lucy noted. So he was at least thinking about agreeing. “Can't hardly swim out to it neither. The water's powerful cold and full of diresharks.”  
  
Lucy laughed. “We've got an illusionist, remember? We'll sneak through!”  
  
Frank's forehead creased up. He chewed on his lower lip. “Well, I'd sure like to trust you, miss, but-”  
  
“But what?” Lucy said. “What else are you going to do? Wait to be dragged back to Blue Pegasus like a naughty child?”  
  
He looked down, and then around the room, and sighed. “All right then.” A moment of hesitation. “Count me in.”  
  
“Great!” Lucy chirped. “Two a.m., tonight, outside the port terminal. See you there!”  
  
Of course, it was going to be a trap.


	8. Chapter 8

“So he's trying to flee the country, and the Muses are trying to drag him back,” Lucy finished.  
  
“What's he done, then?” Osmurand said. “I mean if he's got to get out of Fiore it's probably bad. What's he done?”  
  
“Statistically,” Juvia said, “it's almost certain that he's killed someone.”  
  
Lucy blanched.  
  
“Possibly by accident,” Juvia added. “But the consequences are much the same. In that case, Mr Vanderwood has a great deal to lose if he's caught.”  
  
“Frank Vanderwood,” Byrrick said aloud. “Don't remember ever hearing of the asshole.”  
  
“Unpleasant circumstances can be dealt with quietly,” Juvia murmured.  
  
The four of them were sitting in a shabby little bar a few streets away from the market. (Lucy had put a napkin down on the bench before she sat on it.) Juvia and Lucy were on one side of the table, and the subdivisioners on the other. That hadn't been deliberate; it made it look like a drawing up of battle lines, and it was making the subdivisioners confrontational.  
  
More confrontational than usual.  
  
Byrrick folded his arms and tipped his chair back. “So we're going to help the little asshole get out of the country?”  
  
“No,” Lucy said. She felt a twinge of guilt, because he did seem so harmless, but then she hardened her heart and reminded herself that whoever he'd killed had probably thought so, too. “There might be a bounty on him.” And where there was a bounty you needed to collect it. Lucy hadn't completely worked out the complicated formulae that seemed to govern status in the guild, but the money you earned was a pretty big part. “So we'll take him out quietly. The Muses must have someone watching the docks for them, otherwise he would have tried to get a ship out already. If we make sure that they get their tip-off late, then by the time they arrive we'll have already taken Vanderwood down and set up an ambush for them.”  
  
“That's an awful plan,” Byrrick said. “Who's supposed to go stop the snitch?”  
  
“Don't insult my plan before you know everything about it!” Lucy said. “Fine, you can do it.”  
  
“That's splitting up. I don't like splitting up. We shouldn't split up,” said Osmurand.  
  
“Yeah, maybe we'd have done better last time if _someone_ hadn't run off to chat up soldiers,” Byrrick said.  
  
“I wasn't chatting up soldiers!” Lucy flared up.  
  
“Why? Were they not interested?”  
  
“That's not the point!” Lucy snapped. “You'd be back before the difficult bit, anyway.”  
  
Byrrick rolled his eyes. “Look. The smart thing to do is to let the Muses deal with Vanderwood for us and then stop them on their way out. Conservation of energy, right? They'll be tired and we won't.”  
  
“If they've already captured Frank they don't need to hang around to fight us,” Lucy countered. “We'd have to chase them, catch them and beat them. All they'd have to do is run away, in the dark, through a town they've been in for two days already.”  
  
“It'd be easier than that,” Byrrick said.  
  
“Yeah! It's a port, right? We can drop a fishing net on them,” Osmurand said. “And make a pun, like 'you're all washed up'. Yeah!”  
  
“...that's not really a pun,” Lucy said.  
  
“Os, shut up,” Byrrick said. “Why don't we get this Vanderwood guy to help out? If he's so tough we may as well get some use out of him.”  
  
“Because we can't guarantee that he won't just run off!” Lucy said. “Are you just arguing with me for the sake of arguing now?”  
  
“Are you in charge of this mission?” Byrrick demanded. “Do you have any actual reason to be here? Why are you the one who decides what we're doing?”  
  
“Because nobody else's thought of something!” Lucy snapped. “If you want to come up with a plan, that'd be great, but until then, shut up!”  
  
Juvia quietly sipped her tea and watched them. Lucy was inclined to call that creepy, but since Juvia had paid for Lucy's lemonade and sandwich she decided it would be ungrateful.  
  
Byrrick threw his hands up and slumped back. “Fine. We'll do your stupid plan, and then when it fails, we'll-” 'we' here clearly meaning just him - “come up with something better.”  
  
“Yeah!” Osmurand said cheerfully. Lucy scowled at him, but said “Good,” because at least they were finally listening.  
  
Juvia laid down her teaspoon with a faint clink and cleared her throat. Lucy glanced up warily. Byrrick froze with his chair tipped back on two legs.  
  
“Juvia is glad the matter is decided,” she said. “Juvia is hopeful that this attempt will succeed. She should not have to remind you that Phantom Lord will not tolerate failure, or any actions which cause embarrassment to the guild. Losing twice to the same opponents is unforgivable.” She picked her teacup up again and took another sip. Byrrick, Osmurand and Lucy looked at each other, and then down at the table. There was a brief uncomfortable silence. Lucy seethed silently. How dare Juvia lump her in with the subdivisioners? How dare they drag her down? She didn't even want to be on this mission! She set her glass down with care, not letting it thump on the table, and stood up. “Let's go scout out the port, then.”  
  
The four of them slouched – well, three of them slouched and Juvia walked straight-backed with her heels click-clacking on the pavement – out of the bar. Byrrick and Osmurand stomped on ahead. Lucy and Juvia brought up the rear, Lucy looking away from Juvia with her lower lip sticking out just a little bit.  
  
“Juvia thinks Lucy has a good plan,” Juvia said. “Juvia believes it will work.”  
  
“...oh. Thank you,” Lucy said.  
  
Incidentally,” Juvia added, “Lucy may consider the subdivisioners wholly expendable, if sacrifices must be made for the mission to succeed.”  
  
“What?” Lucy frowned at her.  
  
“Juvia does not believe they are suitable candidates for promotion.”  
  
“Aww,” Lucy said, with mock dismay. “Why? Did they not take their criticism?”  
  
Juvia pursed her mouth into a prim line. Lucy surprised herself by giggling.  
  
“Juvia supposes they may redeem themselves, if they are careful. Juvia hopes Lucy will be careful, too,” Juvia said. “She has decided she would not like telling Gajeel that his lady friend was arrested.”  
  
“...what? Gajeel's... what?” Lucy said, and then, because that didn't sound incredulous enough, “What? No! No way! _Not ever_!”  
  
Juvia drew back and blinked like a rabbit in the headlights of a transcontinental articulated lorry. “Juvia is mistaken?”  
  
“Juvia is very mistaken!” Lucy said. “Lucy has standards, and those standards _explicitly exclude_ anyone with facial piercings, anyone who thinks shampoo is a type of stirfry, anyone who picks metal out of their teeth in public and especially anyone who does all three of those things at the same time!”  
  
Juvia of the Deep pressed her hands to her mouth and wibbled. “...Juvia is very sorry...”  
  
Lucy relented. Well, at least somebody'd noticed she was female and attractive and obviously prime girlfriend material. “It's okay, I just... really not even slightly? Where'd you even get that idea from?” She sighed. “Maybe nobody mentioned this to you before, but when it comes to romance you have kind of an overactive imagination.”  
  
Juvia poked the tips of her index fingers together. “Juvia has been told this... still, Juvia is sure that Gajeel is fond of Lucy, because when he went to hit her, he missed on purpose.”  
  
“What? That's how you know Gajeel likes you? He doesn't actually punch you in the head?” Lucy pulled a face. “Why is he allowed to associate with actual functioning humans? Shouldn't there be some sort of quarantine for situations like this?”  
  
“Juvia supposes it might not be romantic,” Juvia conceded. “Gajeel does usually prefer girls who are smaller and less argumentative.” Lucy stopped dead and stared at her. Juvia's eyes went huge and round. She dropped her umbrella. “That is not what Juvia meant! Juvia meant smaller in height, and, um, circumference-”  
  
“Circumference,” Lucy repeated.  
  
Juvia flailed in anguish. “Juvia did not mean the circumference of Lucy's waist! Juvia meant that Lucy has a different circumference which is not very small at all!”  
  
“Oh, no,” Lucy said, and covered her face with her hands. “Are you sure you're a water mage and not an earth mage?” The hole Juvia was digging herself just kept getting deeper. At this point, it was possible that Juvia was trying to dig out an escape tunnel from the conversation.  
  
“Juvia is very sorry,” Juvia said, pathetically, from behind her hands.  
  
“So I'm not 'not small'?” Lucy asked. Juvia shook her head meekly. “And I'm not argumentative, either,” Lucy added. She'd never been argumentative in her life. Juvia shook her head again.  
  
“Good,” Lucy said, and sighed. God. Could they just get to the ambush already?

* * *

It had to be past two in the morning by now, right?  
  
Lucy was sitting on a bench at the ferry terminal. The sky was black with clouds. Rain battered on her umbrella and water was seeping into her clothes and boots. She crossed her legs and grumbled. How was any plan supposed to work in this rain? Any author knew that this sort of rain was for death scenes and tragic failures! … or for forcing the heroine to stay over at her love interest's house. Lucy didn't have a love interest. It couldn't be a good omen.  
  
Ahead of her was the wharf where the ferry was tied up. The lights strung along its bow gleamed like distant stars through the haze of rain. Behind her rose a wall, and behind that was the rest of the port island, comprising a mess of prefabricated huts for waiting room, cafe and staff offices, and the carpark with its leaking corrugated-iron roof, all floodlit with harsh eyesearing white the rain couldn't soften.  
  
Lucy would have much rather been lurking in the waiting room, out of Juvia's constant rain, but firstly from there she wouldn't be able to see the bridge out to the island, and secondly, she was going to need the slowly-melting cardboard boxes heaped up to her left. They'd once held tea, ground coffee, or tins of condensed milk and corned beef for the ferry's onboard cafe, and clearly the port workers had been halfway through unloading them when the rain set in and they'd decided to bunk off instead. (Lucy couldn't blame them.) Frank would need to walk past those to reach her and the ferry, and Serpens was lurking among them ready to strike as soon as Lucy had him distracted.  
  
She glanced towards the bridge again and saw movement in her peripheral vision. She squinted. There! Right there, a dim figure was sauntering towards her, and the bridge's lights gleamed faintly on carrot-coloured hair.  
  
Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief that turned to fog in the cold night air. Everything was going according to plan, then. Vanderwood would have walked through the ferry terminal at the far end of the bridge concealed by an illusion of Byrrick's, and in five minutes or so Byrrick should pop out of hiding and announce that whoever was on the Muses' payroll should run and fetch them. It wasn't subtle, but Lucy had an idea for when they showed up expecting a straight fight, and step one would be sniping Euterpe from a long way away with Caelum.  
  
She stood up, as Vanderwood ambled past the boxes where Serpens was waiting, and then stepped forward and set her keys on the ground. A length of black thread was tied around the keyring and wound around the fingers of her other hand. Lucy only wanted to _look_ unthreatening, not _be_ unthreatening. “Good morning!” She touched her fingertips to her mouth. “...it is morning, right?”  
  
“I suppose-” Vanderwood broke off, turned to look behind him and said sourly, “Well, can't say as I'm surprised. Shame all these ladies got to be so ruthless.”  
  
“What?” Lucy looked past him. The Muses were running down the bridge towards them. Lucy shrieked. How did that happen? What were those two playing at? She retrieved her keys and backed away.  
  
“Vanderwood, you dumb sack of crap!” Euterpe shouted at him as soon as she reached the end of the wharf. “What do you think you're doing? She's from a dark guild!” Lucy covered her mouth with both hands. There was a girl involved? And then she felt really stupid for not working it out earlier. A double bed in the lodging house, with both pillows dinted from being slept on. Euterpe made a frustrated gesture. “We're not talking someone you can take home to your mama and the mini Vanderwoods here!”  
  
“She doesn't love you,” Urania agreed.  
  
“Both of you, _shut up_ , you've never even met her,” Frank snarled, with instant white-hot fury. Urania blanched.  
  
“Frank,” Melpomene said softly, “don't do this to your little sisters.”  
  
Frank's scowl faded.  
  
“Oh, man,” someone drawled. “Babe, you hear a communications lacrima going off? Because I so called this.”  
  
Lucy looked up. A tall brown-skinned girl was sitting on the wall above them. She wore a battered school uniform of blue blazer and red pleated skirt with steel-capped boots. An elaborate white tattoo that stood out sharply against her brown skin stretched right across her face over the bridge of her nose and swirled into the corners of her eyes. Her hair was a cloud of curls that even the constant rain couldn't deflate, and there was something razor-sharp about the grin she turned on Frank. _Delinquent_ , Lucy thought, and then oh, she just bet this girl was going to be the 'highly dangerous' one.  
  
Frank smiled up at the girl. She swung off the wall and dropped onto the wharf. “What was that about all the ladies being so ruthless, babe?”  
  
“Weren't meaning anything personal by it,” Frank said. “I know you ain't much of a lady.”  
  
The girl laughed, and spun to face the Muses. “Pleased to meet you! Jalemah Sharouf Dameides, S-ranker of Dark Unicorn! … up until about a week ago, which I blame on you, babe,” she added in an undertone. “You ladies gonna back off or am I gonna cut you up?”  
  
Euterpe drew her flute. Green energy gathered around Melpomene's fingertips.  
  
“Enough!” Frank flung out a hand. “Carrot Missile!” The concrete floor of the wharf ruptured, spitting a barrage of oversized carrots towards the Muses with lightning speed.  
  
“Moon Jump!” Urania gasped, and bounded into the air out of the way. Melpomene threw up a blazing green shield, but it wasn't quick enough to stop the missile that caught Euterpe under the ribcage and threw her off her feet.

Jalemah grinned, and swept one hand flat across the air in front of her. “Razor Arc!” A near-invisible crescent scythed through the air toward the Muses. Melpomene kept her shield burning, and the razor arc went straight through it. Melpomene gasped and stumbled back. There was blood seeping through her robes.  
  
Lucy reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!” She pointed at the wall. “Toss me up there!” Taurus grabbed her around the waist and threw her up over the top of the wall. Lucy hit the tarmac hard, taking layers of skin off her palms, and scrambled back to her feet. “Close! Gate of the Bull!” Taurus vanished seconds before another Razor Arc sliced an inch-deep canyon into the concrete wall. Lucy wasn't worried about Serpens, he had the sense to coil up and keep out of trouble until he had a chance to strike, but Taurus was just too big a target to miss.  
  
Lucy darted away from the noise and fighting and flashes of green energy, and nearly ran straight into Byrrick. She grabbed at him. “What were you thinking? We agreed to wait five minutes!”  
  
“They had illusion detectors or some crap like that!” Byrrick snarled. “Shouldn't you have thought of that?”  
  
Could that be true? Frank wouldn't have walked over the bridge so calmly if things had already gone wrong, would he? “Where's Osmurand?” A wide-range water cannon could knock them all into the sea -  
  
“He spotted that cow with the tats off of the rain or something and she cut him up. He's not going to be any use, unless you need someone to bleed all over them.”  
  
Lucy bit her lip.  
  
“Well?” Byrrick prompted. “Any more stupid ideas?”  
  
“Shut up, I'm thinking,” Lucy snapped.  
  
“Hard work, is it?” Byrrick said. Lucy ignored that.  
  
“Are you only good at stock illusions, or can you make something up on the spot?”  
  
“Yeah, bitch, I can be creative,” Byrrick snapped.  
  
“Good! I'm going to break in, find a radio and tell the ferry to, uh, drive away before those two can hijack it. When you get an opportunity, mask those two and make up an illusion of them running into those buildings somewhere to draw the Muses off. ” She glanced at the buildings. “I'll be back soon and then we'll take those two out while the Muses are still looking for them. Just _don't_ send the illusion running straight after me, got it?”  
  
“...Yep,” Byrrick agreed.  
  
“Good,” Lucy said, jumped up and ran for the carpark. It was only surrounded by a low wall, and she vaulted it easily. The carpark was empty and silent except for a vast puddle in the centre from the leaking roof and the buzzing of the lights. What were the Muses doing? She'd specifically told Byrrick not to send them after her; didn't that mean he was guaranteed to? Maybe he'd been telling the truth about the illusion detectors. Maybe -  
  
The Muses burst in.  
  
At least she could always rely on her guildmates to try and stab her in the back.  
  
Euterpe saw Lucy and swore. “Her again? Urania!”  
  
Lucy glanced to her left. There were cables for the electric lights running around the edges of the walls to the ceiling. Urania thrust her hands out in front of her, arms crossed at the wrist. “Meteor Pursuit!”  
  
“Open, Gate of the Chisel!” Lucy screamed. “Caelum!” She snatched the chisel from the air and dived out of the way just in time. The meteor missiles cratered the wall where she had been standing. Lucy rolled and slashed upwards, slicing through the cable. All the lights went out.  
  
“Oh no! Where'd she go?” Urania gasped. "Oh, wait. Meteor Pur-"  
  
Lucy yanked the cable down from the ceiling, cracked it like her whip, and lashed it straight into the puddle the Muses were standing in. There was a crack, and a flash of light. Lucy hacked through the other end of the cable to cut off the current and looked up. The Muses were lying in the puddle, stunned and smoking.  
  
That ought to keep them for a minute! Lucy thanked Caelum – she wasn't sure that Caelum was sentient enough to appreciate it, but just in case – and closed its gate. She didn't want to be caught without any protection, but with the two fights she'd already been in that day her magic was running low. She raced back past the dazed Muses and out of the carpark. If she was lucky Serpens would have had a chance to bite either Frank or Jalemah, if they let their guards down once the Muses were drawn off. If they were really lucky, that one would have been Jalemah. Even if it wasn't, though, Byrrick was bound to have got himself trashed by now, and once both the subdivisioners were out, wouldn't Juvia be obliged to step in? It was about time she made herself useful, and -  
  
Lucy skidded to a stop there, because everything was on fire. Flames raged across the concrete as if it had been drenched in oil. The staff offices were blazing. What had happened? Where was Byrrick?  
  
Wait. Lucy could see the flames and hear the crackling and even smell the smoke, but she couldn't feel the heat. This was something of Byrrick's. She backed away. Where was-  
  
“Storm of Blades!” Jalemah shouted, and the illusion exploded into a glittering tornado. Lucy threw herself flat. The whirlwind raged above her. Byrrick howled. Lucy covered her head with her arms until the storm died down, then gingerly lifted her head. Byrrick was crumpled on the ground, bleeding from dozens of small gashes. Jalemah was standing over him. She kicked him in the ribs – he didn't stir – and then turned to look at Lucy.  
  
Lucy scrambled to her feet and backed away.  
  
“Was that your snake?” Jalemah asked. “It bit my boyfriend.” She smiled, but there was no mirth behind it. “So I cut it into little pieces.”  
  
Lucy gasped and lifted both hands to her mouth. Serpens? She'd been so distracted, she hadn't felt his gate close! Her hands clenched into fists.  
  
“Juvia cannot be harmed by any form of blade magic.” Lucy whipped around. Juvia was walking towards them. Her mouth was set into a thin line. “Drip, drip, drop... Yes. Juvia will be her opponent.”  
  
“No, I'll do it,” Lucy said. Juvia frowned.  
  
“I'm a mage of Phantom Lord's First Division!” Lucy shouted. “I can do it!”  
  
“There's no need to argue, ladies,” Jalemah said. “I can kill you both.”  
  
Lucy slashed her keys through the air. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!” Taurus appeared, bellowing. “ _Rampage_!” Taurus leapt into the air, spun his axe overhead and brought it crashing down with both hands. The earth shook. The ground shattered, spitting gravel and concrete shrapnel into the air, and a fissure opened heading straight for Jalemah. She dived out of the way. Taurus was close behind with his axe, though, and brought it down towards her as she sprawled on the ground. Jalemah rolled aside, firing off a Razor Arc as she did. She didn't aim it at Taurus, though. She aimed it at Lucy.  
  
Lucy shrieked. Taurus lurched, slammed his axe into the ground and caught the Razor Arc on the blade, but that still bought Jalemah enough time to scramble out of range.  
  
“I heard about your trick with the glass!” she shouted to Lucy. “Want to see my version?” She raised both hands, palms down. “Razor Rain!” Lucy looked up. Above her, the air glittered with hundreds of little shards of magic, only visible by the floodlights reflecting off their viciously sharp edges. And then they fell.  
  
Lucy threw her arms over her head and ran to get out of the spell's range, screaming. The rain sliced right through her sweater, opening tiny gashes on her arms and back. “Taurus! Axe Aldebaran!” Taurus swung his axe high in the air and spun it. The hail of knives wrapped around the twin blades with a sound like a swarm of angry bees. Taurus let out a wordless bellow and slammed the axe into the ground. The spell broke free, headed straight for Jalemah.  
  
Jalemah closed her eyes and turned her face away. “Scale Armour!” Her skin rippled and turned to fine overlapping metal scales a moment before the storm hit her. The force of it shoved her back until her boots were against the wall overlooking the sea and the wind tore at her hair, but the shards of magic only skidded off her skin and didn't hurt her.  
  
Taurus stumbled, off-balance. Jalemah turned her head towards him and opened her eyes. She brought both hands together. A flurry of Razor Arcs flashed towards Taurus. Lucy shrieked. “No!” Taurus jerked backwards, blood spurting from his torso. His axe fell from his hands. It, and Taurus, vanished into starlight before it could hit the ground. Lucy reached for her keys.  
  
“Did you think you could hurt me with my own magic, trash?” Jalemah yelled, and swept one arm across in front of her, back and forth. Lucy shrieked and threw herself aside. The Razor Arcs bit slices out of the concrete behind her. Lucy dived for cover behind a big wooden crate and crouched there, catching her breath.  
  
The next volley of Razor Arcs disintegrated the crate. Lucy felt it jar against her back before it shattered into pieces. Dust and splinters rained down on her. Lucy screamed, leapt to her feet and ran blindly only a split second ahead of another burst that would have sliced her into ribbons.  
  
“Stop moving!” Jalemah yelled.  
  
“No!” Lucy yelled back. “What sort of order is that?”  
  
“Then I'll make you!” Jalemah threw out both her hands, fingers spread wide.  “Field of Blades!” Suddenly the air all around Lucy glittered with tangled strands of razor wire. Lucy skidded to a stop just in time. The wires hung barely inches away from her body.

The field only started about a foot above the ground, though! Lucy dropped flat, and then realised she'd trapped herself. She couldn't wriggle away flat on her stomach, and she couldn't run without being cut to pieces. Jalemah smiled, and extended one hand out to her side. She was going to shred Lucy with her Razor Arcs while Lucy lay there, unable to move.  
  
Lucy screamed, leapt to her feet, and charged. Jalemah's magic tore at her clothes and lacerated her skin. She screamed louder. “Open, Gate of the Chisel, Caelum! Cannon Form!” Caelum fell into her hands, changing shape in her grip even as the razor magic sliced into its shell. “Charge!” Blood was dripping into Lucy's eyes, but she could see Jalemah open-mouthed in shock and lifting her hands to defend herself.  
  
Even in Cannon Form, Caelum was still a heavy blunt instrument. Lucy bludgeoned Jalemah across the face with it and tackled her over the sea wall. They both hit the water. Lucy shrieked at the cold and choked as seawater spilled into her mouth. Jalemah flailed and kicked. Lucy shoved Caelum's barrel into her chest.  
  
“ _Fire_!” It came out as bubbles, but Caelum understood. The blast of green light illuminated the dark water for what seemed like miles and threw Lucy and Jalemah apart. Glowing green cracks rippled out from Caelum's barrel. “Flight Form,” Lucy tried to say, seawater rushing into her mouth, but it was too late; Caelum was too badly damaged and Lucy didn't have the power left to maintain it. Caelum's outer shell fractured, and it disappeared back to the stellar spirit world.  
  
Lucy drifted.  
  
Juvia grasped her around the middle and hauled her out of the water. Lucy landed hard on her back on the ground, spat out seawater and wheezed for air.  
  
“Is Lucy all right?” Lucy opened her eyes and saw Juvia's anxious face hovering over her.  
  
“I don't think so,” she rasped, and propped herself up on one elbow. “Ow!” All the hurt caught up with her at once. “Owwww!”  
  
“Juvia was going to help when Lucy was trapped by the Field of Blades,” Juvia said. “Juvia was not expecting Lucy to charge her... Lucy is very blonde. Juvia does not think many people would expect her to charge them.” Lucy was too tired to even try to figure out if there was a catty insult lurking in there. “Juvia thinks Lucy was very brave to do that, when the sea around Brownian Town is so full of diresharks.” Oh God, the diresharks? Lucy had completely forgotten about the diresharks!  
  
She turned her head slowly, wincing. Jalemah was lying face-down in a spreading puddle of seawater. Lucy smiled. “I did it! I – ow... ow, ow, ow...”  
  
“Lucy should take this,” Juvia said, producing a small bottle from her hat. She scanned the label - “One teaspoon for the relief of minor injuries increasing up to a tablespoon for- Juvia thinks Lucy should just drink the whole bottle.” She pressed it into Lucy's hand and twisted the cork out, then went to see to Byrrick. Lucy drained the bottle. It had a grainy texture and tasted of fish sauce. “Ugh!” Lucy stuck out her tongue and made a face.  
  
After a minute, though, warmth began to spread through her bones again and the sting of her wounds dulled. Lucy climbed to her feet and went to get her umbrella. It had been sliced into pieces. She sighed and went back to find the others.  
  
Juvia was a blur of purposeful activity. She had just finished with Byrrick and Osmurand - they were both back on their feet, though unsteadily – and sealed Frank and Jalemah in a floated sphere of water. The two of them floated, eyes closed, deathly pale in the light diffused through the water.  
  
“They can breathe in there, right?” Lucy asked.  
  
“Of course. Juvia has oxygenated the water,” Juvia said. “Juvia believes we should leave this place immediately. Please follow her.” She turned and click-clacked away over the bridge. Byrrick grumbled but slouched after her. Lucy trailed along in the rear, squelching miserably with every step. Her clothes were bloodstained, slashed and drenched in seawater, and all that salt was going to ruin her hair and chap her lips. She scowled.  
  
“Got your ass kicked too, did you?” Byrrick said sourly.  
  
“No, actually!” Lucy snapped. “I beat the one who took you down!”  
  
“Like hell you did,” Byrrick said.  
  
“Do you want me to prove it?” Lucy demanded, and reached for her whip.  
  
“Lucy, Juvia would rather you not attack them,” Juvia called back. Lucy dropped her hand from her keys with a sigh of frustration.  
  
“Haha, you got _told_ ,” said Osmurand. Lucy stomped on ahead. Dealing with other Phantom Lord members could be completely exhausting sometimes.  
  
The four of them, plus bubble, slid through the ferry terminal cloaked under one of Byrrick's illusions, and then Juvia gave out their orders. “Lucy will accompany Juvia on a minor errand. Byrrick and Osmurand will take these two to the military outpost and then meet Lucy and Juvia in Short Street, near the station.” Lucy frowned. Juvia passed control over the bubble to Osmurand – a layer of water sheeted off the outside as she did – and the four of them split up.  
  
“If they're handing them in, though, won't they be given the bounty on her? What if they just run off with it?”  
  
“If they ran away with our money they would regret it,” Juvia said, “and Juvia thinks that they know this.”  
  
“Where are we going, anyway?”  
  
“We are going to find a doctor,” Juvia said.  
  
“Oh,” Lucy said. “I like that plan.”

* * *

The doctor Juvia half-bribed half-intimidated into seeing them before opening hours cast a few quick charms to replenish the blood Lucy'd lost, spread a thick paste that smelled of thyme on all her cuts and wrapped her in bandages until she looked as if she should be chasing an archaeologist through a pyramid. There were bandages wound around her head, across the bridge of her nose, around her neck, her ribs, swathing her arms from shoulder to palm and her legs from thigh to ankle. “That'll do!” he said, and then booted them back out the door.  
  
Stepping back out into the rain was having a bucket of water poured over her head. Lucy stifled a hiss. The painkiller potion was wearing off, though she could still taste fish sauce in the back of her mouth.  
  
Juvia set off briskly for the train station. Lucy trudged after her, with one arm over her head in a futile effort to hold off the rain. She was starting to feel troubled. She was a romantic, wasn't she? She'd read dozens of books about love affairs between a mage from a legal guild and a gorgeous-but-troubled dark mage. It was the most classic model of star-crossed lovers that there was, and yet her first instinct had been to finish the mission and throw both of them in jail?  
  
Of course, in the books the dark mage wasn't actively trying to chop her into little pieces. She was just being sensible, right? If it had been one of Phantom's own mages, somebody would have sold them out and they'd have been in prison for a week by now. Obviously Blue Pegasus had just wanted to drag their mage back and smack some sense into him. Fairy Tail seemed to love recruiting dark mages, so they would probably have invited Jalemah to join. Lucy was pretty sure that six months ago, she would have helped the pair of them get away.  
  
Maybe it was just that she was smarter now that she was four months before, but Lucy was starting to wonder if Phantom Lord had turned her into... well, someone not very nice.  
  
She shook her head firmly, spraying water droplets, and looked ahead. “There they are!”  
  
Byrrick and Osmurand were loitering against a wall. Byrrick was holding a newspaper over his head. Osmurand didn't seem to mind the rain.  
  
“Good morning,” Juvia greeted them. “Wre you successful?”  
  
“Yeah, we can just about manage handing someone in, ta,” Byrrick growled, tucking the newspaper under one arm and sticking his hands in his pockets. Obviously, they'd worked out that they'd failed the test.  
  
“Juvia is pleased,” Juvia said, and extended one hand. “Water Lock!” There was a startled squawk from Byrrick, abruptly cut off. Lucy whipped around. Byrrick and Osmurand were trapped in a massive floating bubble of water. Byrrick had dropped the satchel of money. Juvia turned her hand palm-up and beckoned, and it floated towards her.  
  
“You acted recklessly and pettily. Juvia does not believe you would have completed this mission successfully,” Juvia informed the subdivisioners, and plucked the satchel from the water. “You may no longer consider yourselves mages of Phantom Lord.” She turned and walked away. Lucy goggled, and then ran to catch up with her.  
  
“What was that?”  
  
“They demonstrated themselves undeserving of promotion,” Juvia said. “And it is necessary that somebody take the blame for the attacks on the Blue Pegasus mages. Had they not identified themselves as Phantom mages, they would have been sent back to their subdivision, but as it is... It is necessary for the First Division to understand when a situation requires delicacy, Juvia thinks.”  
  
That couldn't be a very popular opinion, because if it was Lee Annur would never have been promoted. Lucy ducked her head. “So they'll get arrested?”  
  
“Yes,” Juvia said. “Master Jose will deny all knowledge of the mission and declare that they acted of their own free will. Typically this would cause a loss of face, for a guild master to admit less than perfect control of their mages, but Blue Pegasus will be well aware they we are lying. They will simply be unable to prove it.”  
  
Lucy fiddled with her hair, trying to wring the water out of it. The potion was wearing off, and the cold was seeping back into her bones. “... is that right?”  
  
“It's correct. This is the usual procedure that Phantom Lord employs in these circumstances.”  
  
“No, I mean is it right?”  
  
Juvia stopped and looked at Lucy strangely. “'Right' is whatever Master Jose orders,” Juvia said. “And what Master Jose orders is whatever is best for Phantom Lord. The guild is not the same thing as the people in it. It's a weakness in other guilds that they are unwilling to purge their weaker members.”  
  
“Okay,” Lucy said, raising her hands defensively. It made her nervous when people started talking about kicking out the weaklings.  
  
“This was the idea all along, right? An illusionist and a water mage – if you had to step in then Jose could just say they'd made an illusion of you or something. That's why you were the one 'observing'?”  
  
“This was one of the reasons,” Juvia agreed.  
  
Lucy didn't see how Juvia had been planning to explain Lucy away, though. She'd been right in the middle of it the whole time. She'd been just as visible as the subdivisioners were. Honestly, it just seemed careless -  
  
Light dawned.  
  
“You were going to get me arrested!”  
  
“No, Juvia wasn't!” Juvia protested, but too quickly and without a trace of surprise, which was as good as a confirmation.  
  
“You were! You were going to let me get arrested with the subdivisioners if you decided I wasn't good enough!”  
  
“Lucy was good enough!” Juvia said. “Lucy did very-”  
  
“Why would you _do_ that?” Lucy said. “I only just met you! Do you vet all of Gajeel's girlfriends or something?”  
  
“Juvia worries about Gajeel,” Juvia said defensively. “He seems lonely. Juvia worries that people take advantage of him.”  
  
Gajeel? Lonely? Seriously? “Maybe Gajeel would be less lonely if he were less of an _asshole_!” Lucy snapped.  
  
“Juvia is sorry,” Juvia said weakly.  
  
“You dragged me off on this mission fighting people and getting rained on and butting heads with subdivision trash just so you could get me arrested at the end of it!” You could always rely on your guildmates to try and stab you in the back.  
  
“Juvia is sorry,” Juvia said again.  
  
“I'm so sick of this! I'm sick of this whole guild! I'm sick of the fighting and the posturing and-” Lucy was soaked through from head to toe, her hair was plastered to her skull and her twenty-four hour waterproof mascara had given up all pretence of being waterproof. “-and I am sick of all this bloody rain!”  
  
Juvia flinched back as if Lucy'd slapped her. “J-juvia doesn't do it on purpose,” she stuttered. “She, she doesn't know how to make it stop-”  
  
Lucy had already turned away. “Open, Gate of the Charioteer! Auriga!” A flash of supernova light resolved into an ornate two-wheeled chariot. Auriga's torso grew out of the front like a figurehead on a ship. The reins in his hands were linked to the end of the yoke that extended in front of the chariot.  
  
Auriga flicked the reins as Lucy scrambled aboard. “Where would you like to go today, ma'am?”  
  
“Away from here,” Lucy bit out, and Auriga rattled away. Lucy leant her arms on the side of the chariot and rested her head on her arms. The chariot bounced over the cobbles. Lucy let out a long, heartfelt groan.  
  
“Mistress?” Auriga asked, slowing down.  
  
“It's okay,” Lucy said. The subdivisioners were thuggish swaggering trash, just like three-quarters of the guild already was; they weren't any great loss. And Jalemah ought to be in prison, and maybe getting a caution would teach Vanderwood to have more sense. But...  
  
The image of Juvia's concerned face rose up in front of her. Ditching the subdivisioners, trashing the Muses and turning the other two in to the authorities – maybe Lucy hadn't been nice there, but it had all been the smart thing to do, so if Phantom Lord had made her less kind then wasn't that a good thing? She'd chosen this path, she had to walk it now.  
  
Still, Lucy had the horrible feeling that she really had just been a total and absolute bitch to someone who hadn't deserved any of it.  
  
“Oh, God,” Lucy said. “Auriga, turn around.”  
  
Juvia had been walking briskly towards the train station. When Auriga skidded to a stop beside her, one wheel splashed through a puddle and flung up a spray of muddy water over Juvia's coat and face. Juvia stopped. She wiped the water from her face and turned a cold, furious stare on Lucy. She opened her mouth to speak.  
  
“I'm sorry,” Lucy said. Juvia's mouth stayed open. “I shouldn't have said that, I was just in a bad mood and I guess I took it out on you even though you didn't really do anything wrong. But I thought we were getting on, and you, you're the nicest person I've met since I joined Phantom, maybe the only nice person so-” Juvia stared at her. Lucy's mouth ran on blindly. “-so if you could forgive me then I'd rather get soaked in the rain with you than stay dry with someone else, so, uh... can we be friends?” Lucy had to stop there to breathe. Juvia said nothing. Her eyes had gone huge. “Please?”  
  
“...yes. Juvia would like that very much,” Juvia said.  
  
Lucy whooped and leant out over the edge of the chariot to throw her arms around Juvia's neck. “Yes! Thank you!”  
  
Ow. Actually, that really hurt. She shifted her grip and lifted her head from Juvia's shoulder, and saw golden light through her eyelids. Lucy opened her eyes and tipped back her head.  
  
“Oh!” she said. “It's stopped raining!”  
  
“Huh?” Juvia said, and lifted her face to the sky. Sunlight glowed on her skin. Right when Lucy'd decided she didn't mind it so much, as well! What were the chances of that? “The rain has stopped?” Juvia said blankly. She stared. “These are... clear skies?”  
  
Lucy looked up. The rainclouds were dissolving into thin grey wisps, tinted violently gold along their edges by the rising sun. “It's pretty, isn't it?” Juvia was looking upwards with stunned, wet eyes. “Hey! What's wrong? Don't cry!” Lucy said, and fell back to her proven, time-tested, 100% infallible method for making everything better. “I don't know about you, but I just earned fifty thousand jewel and I badly need a new outfit – want to go shopping?”  
  
“Shopping?” Juvia repeated, going pink and flustered. “Juvia isn't sure how to shop recreationally. Juvia has never really-”  
  
“There's an art to it,” Lucy agreed smugly. “Luckily, I'm an expert!” She offered Juvia a hand up into the chariot. Juvia looked at the bandages wound around Lucy's arm and said “Juvia is not sure that-”  
  
Lucy gave Juvia her biggest, brightest grin. “Please?” The corners of Juvia's mouth twitched, and then she smiled too, so widely that her eyes crinkled shut.  
  
“Yes! Juvia would like to come!”  
  
Lucy whooped and pulled her aboard. “Auriga!” she shouted, one arm around Juvia and the other pointed skywards. “Take us to the shops!”


	9. That Pink-Haired Kid

Lucy and Juvia couldn't share all their missions, because the jobs Juvia took tended to involve severe physical danger or being at the bottom of the sea. But when they could, it was a lot of fun! That day they were escorting Andelies Kabain, a rich businesswoman's daughter, back to her private boarding school for the start of term and making sure she didn't escape on the way. Lucy did sort of feel sorry for Andelies, though. Lucy felt sorry for Andelies right up to when they were getting on the train, when Andelies smashed Lucy in the face with her duffel bag, dropped it and ran. Lucy reeled back. Juvia spun and fired off a Water Lock which trapped three horrified commuters. Andelies Kabain was lost in the crowd.  
  
“I wasn't expecting her to hit me,” Lucy complained, rubbing her nose. “Am I still pretty?”  
  
“Juvia thinks Lucy is very pretty,” Juvia said. “However, Juvia also thinks maybe we should not have let her escape?”  
  
Lucy held up her keyring, and giggled. “We didn't!”  
  
“...Juvia doesn't understand,” said Juvia.  
  
“I'll show you!” Lucy scrambled back to her feet. Ahead of her, Andelies raced out of the station and swung sharply to the right. Lucy's stellar spirit Musca was close behind her, and as Musca's vision was added to hers Lucy saw a dozen blurred tiny images of the girl in her distinctive red school blazer tearing down the street. Andelies glanced back to check for pursuers as she turned a corner, a pale flash in a cloud of dark curly hair, but she didn't spot the fly buzzing close behind her.  
  
“Come on!” Lucy took off after Andelies, head down, shoving through the crowd. Juvia followed with much less difficulty – all the briefcases, furled umbrellas and elbows that jostled her knocked off sprays of water but didn't slow her down. Outside the station, Lucy pointed down the street. “She went that way! Come on, but don't let her see us!”  
  
“But how does Lucy know that?”  
  
Lucy grinned. “I've got a Musca key! She's trailing Andelies now. If she's serious, she's got a plan, right? Someone who'll help her hide out. And if we let her try her plan then we'll find out what it is!”  
  
“Oh!” Juvia clapped her hands. “How clever!”  
  
“I know!” Lucy agreed, delighted. She grabbed Juvia's hand, and the two of them hurried down the street after Andelies. Lucy scanned for landmarks. There was the patisserie with chocolate cream puffs in the window, and the Heart Kreuz outlet store – ahead, Andelies raced up the steps to a narrow house and banged on the front door. It was opened by a footman in a dark suit. Andelies stomped past without looking at him, and the door slammed shut before Musca could flit inside. The little stellar spirit perched above the lintel and waited for Lucy and Juvia.  
  
When Lucy clattered up the steps and rapped on the door, Musca buzzing down to perch on her shoulder, the same footman opened the door. Lucy shoved past him and barked “Where's Andelies?”  
  
“Excuse me!” an old woman protested. “This is private property! Hallihan, call the military at once!”  
  
“We're Phantom Lord mages. It wouldn't do you any good,” Lucy informed her, and glanced around. It was only a small house, and plain, with faded green wallpaper and bare wooden stairs, but the old woman's clothes were all of fine materials and well-tailored, and Gajeel would have had trouble lifting the jewelry that dripped from her arms and neck. Plus, the footmen. It looked like this place had been rented for this exact purpose.  
  
“We're looking for Andelies Kabain,” Juvia said. “You know where she is. If you do not cooperate with us, you will regret it.”  
  
“... I've never heard of her,” the old woman said.  
  
“She's in here,” Lucy said, and stomped through into the sitting room. The old woman followed her.  
  
“No, she isn't!”  
  
“Yes, she is!” Lucy rebutted. “We saw her come in here!” She scanned the room, pointed, and said “Look, she's under there!” Andelies, clearly visible under the sofa, scowled and showed Lucy her middle finger. Lucy pulled down her eyelid at her and stuck out her tongue.  
  
“...No, she isn't,” the old woman said.  
  
Lucy gave up on arguing and went to drag Andelies out instead. She reached under the sofa. Andelies skittered back against the wall.  
  
“Come out of there! You're acting like you're five!”  
  
“You're acting like you're five!” Andelies rebutted, and yanked on Lucy's hair.  
  
“Ow!” Lucy swiped at her. “Quit it! I have a big poisonous snake and I'm not afraid to use him!”  
  
“Juvia does not mean to say that Lucy is not being helpful,” Juvia said, “but would Lucy please step out of the way?” Lucy hurriedly wriggled back. “Water Lock!” The expanding bubble of water bounced the sofa off the ceiling. Andelies floated in the middle, spitting out nearly inaudible curses.  
  
“Actually, this is working well. Let's stick with this,” Lucy said. Juvia agreed. They turned to go.  
  
“This is kidnapping!” The old woman shouted after them. “That's my granddaughter! You can't abduct her from my own house! I'll call the military!”  
  
“This mission was given to us by her legal guardian,” Juvia said. “You have no grounds for complaint.”  
  
Lucy turned around on the steps, pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue. “Nyaaah!”  
  
Much later, once they'd rolled Andelies into the front hall of the Cardinal Neville Zentopian School for Girls – of course Juvia could have levitated the bubble, but that took effort and plus Lucy thought it was funny – scribbled a note to Mrs Kabain about the grandmother and collected the money that had been entrusted to the headmistress, they took the train back to Oak Town. Lucy knew a little coffee shop that opened late and did the absolute best cheesecake in Fiore.  
  
They took a table outside. Juvia tipped her head back to the clear starry sky and smiled. “Juvia thinks that she should ask the chef for the recipe.”  
  
“You should,” Lucy said. “You absolutely definitely should.” Juvia loved to make delicious food. Lucy loved to eat delicious food. Theirs was the perfect friendship.  
  
“How is Lucy's novel?” Juvia asked.  
  
“About half done!” Lucy chirped. Well, chapter eighteen out of the forty she had planned, close enough. “You'll still be the first one to read it, don't worry!”  
  
“Juvia is glad. She wants to know who Iris will end up with,” Juvia said, and popped a forkful of cheesecake into her mouth. Lucy was a little worried about that, really, because Juvia was convinced that the guy Lucy'd meant to be the love interest was secretly the villain and now Lucy kind of wanted to write that. Everyone liked bad boys, right?  
  
“You wouldn't have to wonder if you hadn't read chapter one when I wasn't looking,” Lucy pointed out.  
  
“Lucy didn't tell Juvia she couldn't read it!” Juvia protested, through the cheesecake, and swallowed. “Juvia is wondering-” She toyed with her fork in a way that failed to be casual. “- how long has Lucy had her Musca key?”  
  
“I got her from that mission in Cypress Town,” Lucy said. “It's taken ages to find a way to use her, though! I guess because I'm not ruling a small town with an iron fist.”  
  
“Lucy does know that Musca keys are illegal, yes?”  
  
“Yeah... because of privacy rights, isn't it? I was going to ignore that,” Lucy said. “That's okay, right?” She wasn't going to use Musca to peek at people in the bath, so she didn't think it should be a problem.  
  
“Of course, Juvia doesn't mind,” Juvia said. “But who else knows that you have it?”  
  
“Only Sue,” Lucy said, frowning.  
  
“Oh!” Juvia brightened up. “There's no need to worry, then! Sue is trustworthy.”  
  
“Maybe I shouldn't keep her with my other keys, just in case,” Lucy said. “Could you make me another pocket in my other boot?” Juvia had sewn a hidden pocket into Lucy's right boot for her, where she could keep one of her keys in case she lost her keyring. At the moment she was hiding Serpens, for a capture mission against a civilian.  
  
“Juvia would be happy to!” Juvia exclaimed, clapping her hands, genuinely delighted at the prospect of needlework. Lucy smiled.  
  
“Hey!” someone shouted. “Lucy Heartfilia!”  
  
“Huh?” Lucy looked around. It was that kid. The pink-haired one. Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer. “What does he want?” she said aloud, and then realised that he'd said her name. Her real name.

* * *

Mirajane had been cleaning glasses when a shout made her look up. Master Makarov had been standing in one of the windows on the upper floor, peering out at the street with one clenched fist resting against the glass. He had been doing that for a while, and Mirajane hadn't liked to disturb him. But now he leapt down, scampered down the steps and across to the bar and clambered up onto it.  
  
“Master?” Mirajane asked. “What is it?”  
  
Makarov didn't answer. He sat cross-legged, laid his staff across his lap, closed his eyes firmly and let his head fall forward. A sudden thought struck Mirajane. She looked sharply towards the front doors, just as they slammed back. The window panes rattled. Erza strode into the guild hall, with Gray, Natsu and Happy trailing behind her. All alive, and all (reasonably) uninjured, and wasn't that the best they could have hoped for? Mirajane clapped her hands together with delight. “Welcome home! How was the island? Did you have fun?”  
  
“... it really wasn't that kind of trip,” Gray said.  
  
“Master!” Erza greeted Makarov. He started and pretended to wake up. “Mrfgh- oh, it's you lot?” He brandished his staff at Gray and Natsu. “You damn kids! How dare you go on an S-Rank quest without permission? Gray, weren't you supposed to be bringing Natsu home?”  
  
“That's true!” Elfman thumped his fist against the bar. “Gray, why didn't you keep your promise like a man would?” Cana took a long draught of her beer.  
  
“I did agree to bring Natsu back,” Gray said. “But when I saw what was going down on the island, I had to stay and help out. Punish me however you want.” He folded his arms across his chest and waited, stony-faced and shoulders squared.  
  
“...Bad Gray!” Makarov barked, and whapped Gray upside the head. Gray squawked.  
  
“Natsu, bad!” Another thwap, and a howl from the Dragon Slayer. “Happy, _terrible_!” Thwap!  
  
“Why am I terrible?” Happy lamented.  
  
“Now,” Makarov ordered, “All of you go and stand in a corner for an hour!” He pointed imperiously at one of the room's corners. “Go!”  
  
“What? Master!” Gray and Erza said together, though for completely different reasons.  
  
“Gramps, that's way too much!” Natsu protested. “We were ready to face _that_ , but a whole hour!?”  
  
“They took an S-rank job without permission!” Erza said. “They could have been killed... or worse, embarrassed the guild.”  
  
“Erza's priorities are scary,” Happy told Natsu's scarf.  
  
Erza thumped one armoured fist into her palm with a crash of metal on metal. “I can't approve of this - you're being far too lenient, Master!”  
  
“Didn't you say it should be the master who decided the consequences?” Gray asked her. Erza indicated for him to shut his face.  
  
Makarov thought about it and duly amended the punishment. “Stand in the corner for _two_ hours!”  
  
Natsu, Gray and Happy groaned. Erza nodded with grim satisfaction.  
  
Fairy Tail's newest recruit, distinguished by his spiky ponytail and the iron parolee's manacle around his wrist, leant over to Mickey Chickentiger and whispered, “This is a sick joke, right?”  
  
“No, I really think he'll make them do it,” Mickey muttered back, before grabbing her magical bird Pii out of the air and burying her face in its feathers. “Don't look, Kageyama!”  
  
“You are _shitting_ me,” Kageyama said.  
  
“No, seriously, he's gonna do it,” Mickey said, distraught. “Master, don't! You're being cruel!”  
  
“A serious infraction demands a serious punishment!” Makarov snapped. “This hurts me more than it hurts you, you damn brats!”  
  
“No, it doesn't!” Natsu said.  
  
“A man takes responsibility for his actions!” Elfman lectured the three of them. Cana took a swig of her beer. “Accept your punishment, like men!”  
  
Cana took another swig, gazed into the bottom of her now-empty tankard and said, “Elfman, quit talking about men all the time. I think I might be drinking too much...” The rest of Fairy Tail stared at her in horror and alarm.  
  
“Men say what they mean!” Elfman retorted. Cana sighed and went to get another keg.  
  
“We completed the job, though,” Gray protested. “Doesn't that count for something?”  
  
“Stop arguing and accept the master's punishment!” Erza roared. She grabbed him by the back of his neck (it would have been by the collar of his jacket, but he had discarded that somewhere between the door and the bar) and hauled him to the corner. “And stay there until you're permitted to leave!”  
  
Meanwhile, though, Natsu had spotted a poster lying on the bartop. He snatched it up. “Hey! What's this about?”  
  
“We've been asked to kidnap a mage from Phantom Lord,” Mirajane told him, and sighed. “Obviously, it's very complicat-” Then Erza returned.  
  
“Natsu! Put that down!” She yanked the poster out of his hand, grabbed him by the vest and then literally punted him into a corner. There was a wail that ended in a crash. “And stay there!” Erza shouted, before she turned to Happy. The blue cat fluttered obediently into a corner. Erza looked the poster over. “What's this?” She examined the portrait for a moment – a slim, fair-haired girl with a sad expression - and then glanced up at Makarov. “So one of Jose Porla's mages is a runaway?”  
  
Makarov was dwelling, obviously, on a father who wanted his daughter back, but he just _hrrrm_ ed. “Well, there's nothing we can do about it. You three can tell Phantom Lord to watch out.”  
  
“Us three?”  
  
“Elfman and me were waiting for you to get back!” Mirajane explained cheerfully. “It says she's at Oak Town, which is where the Iron Dragon and Juvia Lockser are based. They might not even be there, but, well-” Erza wasn't familiar with Juvia Lockser, beyond that she was a formidable water mage, but Iron Dragon Gajeel was famously quick to attack. “We thought of asking Luxus to come with us, but... even if he had agreed, that would have meant Luxus coming with us.”  
  
Erza couldn't argue with that. Visiting a Phantom Lord branch would be trouble enough. Taking a cranky attention-seeking lightning mage along would only make it worse. “Luxus was here? Why didn't you order him to retrieve Natsu?”  
  
“Master did,” Mirajane said. It took Erza a moment to understand, but then she just sighed deeply. They both looked at Makarov.  
  
“Kids,” Makarov said, and shrugged. “He'll learn.”  
  
“Master was a tearaway when he was that young, wasn't he?” Mirajane said brightly. Makarov nodded, but Erza barked “Master would _never_ have refused an order from Master Purehito!”  
  
“Erza! That's enough!” Makarov cut in sharply.  
  
Erza breathed out hard and said, “I apologise, Master, I spoke out of turn. Punish me any way you like.”  
  
“Eh? Isn't sending you to deal with Jose's brats enough for you?”  
  
Erza folded the poster up and slipped it into her breastplate. Obviously, they had to refuse the job, but the owner of the Heartfilia Konzern wasn't likely to give up on it there, and if they didn't warn Jose Porla that someone wanted to abduct one of his mages then he would probably take that as a declaration of war. Jose Porla could take burnt toast as a declaration of war.  
  
“We'll leave early tomorrow morning,” she decided. “Is that acceptable?”  
  
It was acceptable. The plan was set.  
  
Sadly, however, they had failed to account for Natsu Dragneel.

* * *

Lucy leapt to her feet, reaching for her keys. Her chair toppled over.  
  
“What is it?” Juvia asked, aghast.  
  
“Hey!” The Fairy Tail mage pointed at her. “Why'd you run away? Your dad asked us to bring you home. You're Lucy Heartfilia, right?”  
  
Her father... why would her father send Fairy Tail to get her? Why would he want her back? Lucy couldn't speak. Her mouth was dry as sand.  
  
“Natsu! This is a really bad idea!” the blue cat mewed.  
  
“Nah, Happy! She's that iron bastard's girlfriend, right? So if I capture her, he'll have to come and fight me properly!” The Fairy Tail mage grinned as if that was a brilliant idea. Lucy was still speechless, but now for more reasons.  
  
Juvia pushed back her chair and stood up. “You are mistaken. This is Lucy Ashley, not Lucy Heartfilia,” she said coldly. “It is a simple misunderstanding.” She stretched out one hand. “But one you will regret! Water Slicer!”  
  
“Fire Dragon's Roar!” Fire burst from the Fairy's mouth. Lucy leapt back. The fire blast enveloped the water blades and boiled them to steam in an instant. Lucy felt the heat roll over her.  
  
The Fairy slammed his knuckles together. “Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” His hands burst into flame.  
  
“He's a Dragon Slayer,” Lucy warned Juvia. “Like-”  
  
“Juvia has fought better Dragon Slayers,” Juvia said. “Water Slicer!” The attack sailed past the Dragon Slayer, ten feet to his left.  
  
“Hey! What are you doing?” he yelled. “I'm over here!” He bounced up and down and pointed at himself with both flaming hands.  
  
“You missed?” Lucy said, aghast. Juvia hadn't missed. She had been aiming for the fire hydrant. The top was sliced off. A geyser of water erupted into the sky, drenching the Fairy and Juvia and Lucy and everything within a radius of twenty feet. The Fairy's hands were extinguished.  
  
Lucy clutched at Juvia's arm. “Juvia. Juvia, listen,” she said, and took a deep shuddering breath. “He's right. I am Lucy Heartfilia.”  
  
Juvia gasped. Both hands went to her mouth. “Oh no! Has Juvia been getting Lucy's name wrong this whole time?” Absently, she turned back to the Fairy mage and brought both her hands together. “Double Wave!” Giant crests of water slammed into the Fairy mage from both sides. The flying cat shot up and out of range. The Fairy was spun around and dropped to the paving stones as the waves fell. “Juvia is so sorry!”  
  
“No, I was using a false name! I didn't want anyone to know who I am,” Lucy said. “Juvia, what am I going to do?”  
  
“No matter what Lucy's name is, Juvia will not allow anyone to abduct her!” Juvia extended one hand, palm towards the Fairy. “Water Lock!” The blue cat shot out of the way as the bubble sealed shut. The Fairy mage yelled bubbles. “He will not be able to burn his way out of that,” Juvia said confidently. “We should take him back to the guild hall. Master Jose will-”  
  
“Juvia,” said Lucy.  
  
“-know what should be done with him, and-”  
  
“Juvia!” Lucy said, and pointed. Juvia turned and looked. Steam was pouring from the sides of the Water Lock. The mage inside was barely visible. “He's boiling it off?” Juvia gasped.  
  
Lucy backed away. What were a Dragon Slayer's weaknesses? Gajeel didn't have any! What was she supposed to-” _Oh!_ Travelsickness! Lucy reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Charioteer! Auriga!”  
  
Auriga materialised in a burst of light. Lucy pointed at the Dragon Slayer in his rapidly-vanishing bubble and shouted “Grab him!”  
  
Auriga wheeled about just as the last vestiges of the Water Lock dissolved into steam. The Dragon Slayer dropped to the ground. He saw Auriga bearing down on him and lifted both hands to his mouth. “Fire Dragon's-” Auriga's outstretched arm caught him square below the ribcage. “- _hggk_!”  
  
“Auriga! Get out of here!” Lucy screamed. “Get as far as you can before time runs out!”  
  
Auriga swung the green-faced Dragon Slayer across the pole of the chariot, ducked his head down and accelerated. A distant “Yes, mistress!” floated back on the wind.  
  
“Natsu!” the cat wailed. It sprouted wings and took off after them.  
  
Lucy watched them disappear into the distance, and then wailed herself. “We should have captured him!” She clutched at her hair. “How long is is going to take for him to get back to Magnolia and report back? Auriga could get him sixty miles away before time runs out... but what if he goes south? That would nearly take him back to Magnolia! I should have told Auriga to go north. I should have asked him to try and put him on the ferry at Brownian Town or-”  
  
“Lucy, please don't worry!” Juvia said. “You said to go as far away as possible. East of us is mountainous, so Auriga would not be able to travel so quickly. So he will probably go directly west where the ground is flatter, so they will still end up a long way from Magnolia Town. And it will only take us ten minutes to go back to the guild hall and see Master Jose. Anyway, Auriga does not have the Fairy mage's passport, so he would never be able to put him on a ferry to begin with.”  
  
“Yeah... yeah, you're right,” Lucy said, and struggled to slow her breathing.  
  
“Lucy,” Juvia said, and took her by the arms. “What is happening? Why did you enrol under a false name?”  
  
“My father owns the Heartfilia Konzern,” Lucy said.  
  
Juvia blinked. “Juvia is sorry. She thinks she misheard Lucy.”  
  
“No, Juvia didn't,” Lucy said. “I ran away a year ago. I didn't want to use my real name when I joined up because then everyone would know who my father is. But now-” She struggled to put it into words. The first few months after she had left home, she had been paranoid, avoiding train stations because her father owned most of them and scrutinising the papers to make sure her face wasn't pictured. But nothing had happened, and eventually she had relaxed. It was as if he was pretending she had never left, or that she had never existed. “Why now? Why is he trying to get me back now?” Lucy scrubbed her hands across her face. “Why would he send another guild to kidnap me!? What sort of father does that?”  
  
“Lucy's father is not a good man,” Juvia said. “We're fortunate that Master Jose is here this week. We should tell him what's happened.” Lucy nodded. Juvia grasped her hand and the two of them hurried towards the guild hall. Lucy looked back anxiously over her shoulder as they went. She could almost laugh. She'd faced S-ranked dark mages and chthonians, and now she was scared because her father wanted her brought home?  
  
Juvia stormed straight through the hall, up to the mezzanine and high up into the castle tower, towing Lucy behind her. At a massive set of oak doors, Lucy hesitated, but Juvia pushed them open and walked straight in. “Master!”  
  
Lucy followed her, looking around. This was an audience chamber, decorated in green and grey and furnished with bookcases of massive leatherbound books and tables of expensive artifacts. At the far end of the hall was a stone dais, and on that was a massive chair – a throne, really – where Master Jose sat. Bozo was standing in front of the dais, holding a sheaf of papers to his chest, but he stepped back out of Juvia's way as the Element Four mage marched to stand before Master Jose's throne.  
  
“Is something bothering you, Juvia?” Master Jose asked.  
  
Juvia's hands clenched into fists. “Fairy Tail have tried to kidnap Lucy!” Master Jose sat up straighter.  
  
“What? One of my mages?” His expression darkened. “Makarov's disgusting brats tried to lay a hand on one of my mages? Was this with his permission?”  
  
“It must have been! Nobody would be foolish enough to disobey their master on a matter of this gravity,” Juvia said.  
  
The shadows grew darker. Deep cold curled around Lucy's spine. “How dare they?” Master Jose hissed. “They will regret that they were ever born for this!” The magical pressure in the room had grown chokingly thick. “Do we need to make it painfully clear which of us is the superior?”  
  
“Yes, Master! We should stamp them out like insects!” Juvia cried. “Fairy Tail _cannot be allowed to live_!”  
  
Lucy blinked at Juvia who, while still Lucy's best friend forever and ever, had clearly completely lost her mind, and then at Bozo, who shrugged and raised his hand.  
  
“Master, I completely agree with everything you just said, but... why Ashley? She's not that important, is she?”  
  
“Ow,” Lucy said.  
  
Master Jose raked his stare over Lucy. “Is it this young lady?” Lucy felt like a naughty child, called to stand in front of her father's desk. “Why target her?”  
  
Lucy explained haltingly, while Juvia put her hands on her hips and stood over her like a bodyguard. “My real name is Heartfilia, not Ashley. I ran away from home a year ago, and now my father's hired Fairy Tail to bring me back.”  
  
Master Jose's eyes narrowed. “Would that be the Heartfilias of the-”  
  
“The Heartfilia Konzern? Yes,” Juvia said. “It is her father's company.”  
  
Master Jose considered that. He looked from Lucy, to Juvia, to Bozo (who was looking completely dumbfounded) and said “Juvia, would you and Charles summon the rest of the Element Four and the First Division?” Charles? Who? Oh, right, Bozo had an actual name.  
  
Juvia hesitated, looking at Lucy.  
  
“I assure you, Miss Heartfilia is entirely safe in my care,” Master Jose said.  
  
“Of course, master,” Juvia said, and turned to go. Bozo went with her.  
  
The other mages of the Element Four and the rest of the First Division?! Lucy knew it wasn't really for her sake – it was for the guild's pride – but it was still reassuring to know what sort of forces were being gathered in her defense.  
  
Master Jose steepled his fingers. “So you ran away, and your father is trying to retrieve you?” Lucy nodded. Master Jose nodded too, slowly. “His methods may be drastic, but surely it's not odd that he would wish to have you home?” Lucy's mouth turned down at the corners. “It can be so tragic, when rifts spring up between family members. Have you considered meeting with him, making a reconciliation?” Master Jose spread his hands wide. “As your guild master, I only have your best interests in mind.”  
  
Lucy shook her head. “If he was interested in reconciliation, wouldn't he have come to see me, or written me a letter, instead of hiring Fairy trash to drag me back by force?”  
  
“Are you quite sure?” Master Jose asked. “A family is a great support, even when they're not so wealthy as the Heartfilias, and I don't think any First Division mage needs to be advised to take full use of their resources.”  
  
“It's already... not something that can be made up,” Lucy said. “He's never been like a real father. I don't ever want to see him again, and I won't ever use his money-"  
  
“Miss Heartfilia-”  
  
Lucy lowered her voice, calmed her breathing and said “Miss Ashley, Master, if you don't mind." It was just weird, being called Miss Heartfilia again after a whole year.  
  
Master Jose sat back. “Well, I can see that your mind is made up, and I know better than to try and change my First Division mages' minds." Lucy smiled a little. "That's unfortunate...” Lucy ducked her head, embarrassed. He stood up. “This trouble with Fairy Tail will be difficult to resolve.”  Master Jose walked past Lucy, towards the door. She heard him step behind her.  
  
Everything went black.


	10. The Amazing Disappearing Lucy

“Can I just say thanks for getting me out of that?” Bozo asked Juvia, as they clattered down the stairs. “The master may be a great mage, but he doesn't really understand administration. I was worried I'd be there until tomorrow morning.”  
  
“Bozo is welcome,” Juvia said shortly. She wanted to know what the master and Lucy were talking about! She and Bozo reached the hall at one end of the mezzanine where the guild's inter-branch communications lacrima was housed.  
  
“You do it. They're not going to listen to me,” Bozo said.  
  
“Bozo is too unkind to himself,” Juvia said reflexively, even though it was completely true. She stepped closer to the lacrima. “Calling Ivy Town, Subdivision Twenty-Seven!”

* * *

“Monsieur Sol!” A First Division girl unlatched the gate to Sol's garden and stepped inside. “You've had a message from Juvia of the Deep at Oak Town!” She looked around. The garden was lit by lamps on wrought iron posts. The walls were covered with such thick blankets of white clematis they looked like tethered clouds. The whole garden was a riot of flowers and colour and overwhelmingly thick intermingled scents. She took another step, gravel crunching under her boots. “Juvia says-” The earth ruptured under her feet. “ _Yeek_!”  
  
Sol burst out of the ground in a spray of gravel and wound tight around her. “ _Non, non, non_ , mademoiselle, I condemn your actions with three _non_ s! Were you not warned never to enter my garden?”  
  
“I'm sorry!” she yelped. “There's a message from-”  
  
“ _Non, non, non_! That is entirely incorrect!”  
  
“Uh, crap – _je suis très désolé_!”  
  
The coils tightened around her, squeezing the air out of her lungs.  
  
“You are not _un homme_ , are you, mademoiselle?”  
  
The girl wheezed. “ _Je suis très désolée_!” Her eyes rolled back in her head.  
  
“ _Oui, oui, oui_!” Sol let go of her. She fell forward into the gravel, gasping. “How kind of you to bring me a message! _Qu'est-ce qui se passe_?”  
  
“Juvia called,” she rasped. “The master wants you at Oak Town right now! Fairy Tail's pulled some stupid crap, and we're going to destroy them!”

* * *

Some way outside Amaryllis Town, Totomaru drew his katana and held it by his side, ready for a quick upwards slash. The bandits fell back.  
  
“Are you all too craven to fight me?” Totomaru taunted them. “Against unarmed civilians, old women and small children, you'll attack without hesitation, but you're too afraid to face one of Phantom Lord's Element oh fuck it my lacrima crystal's buzzing.” He sheathed his katana and rummaged through his clothes. He said more bad words. “Where's it gone?!” The crystal had rolled around the back of his jacket. He wriggled out of one sleeve and twisted to reach it. “There!”  
  
The bandits stared. Totomaru held up one finger to them and activated the lacrima. “It's Totomaru. What do you want? … On whose authority? Juvia's? Fine. When? Now? Why? … fucking _finally_! I'll be there by morning!” He deactivated the lacrima crystal, dropped it back into his jacket, turned and walked away.  
  
“Hey!” one of the bandits yelled after him. “Where do you think you're going?”  
  
Totomaru turned, drawing his katana from its sheath. “White Fire!” He slashed the sword through the air. An arc of eyesearing white flame erupted in its wake. The blast picked the bandits up and flung them back like rag dolls, tore leaves and small branches from the trees, and ruffled up Totomaru's hair.  
  
Totomaru fixed his hair, sheathed his sword again and headed back to Amaryllis Town.  
  
“Man, you had to ask,” another bandit groaned to the first, and passed out.

* * *  
  
In Rue Town's famous opera hall, the soprano lay on the stage with her red silk robe pooled around her. The violinists struck up a mournful melody. Slowly, the soprano rose to her knees, clasped her hands to her chest and launched into the famous aria, _Mi fa male la gamba_.  
  
For some people, the aria was drowned out by a deep voice booming “Oh, how sorrowful! Where does this grief come from? Is this the tragedy of a strong woman brought low?” Many of those people had paid five thousand jewel apiece for their seats. They were not impressed.  
  
The door at the back of the private box opened. “Aria? Sir?” A skinny First Division mage slipped into the box. Slowly and silently, Aria turned his head to look at him. “We've received a call from Juvia Lockser.” Aria stood up. “She's requested that you go to the Oak Town branch as quickly as possible. Master Jose is planning a strike against Fairy Tail.” Aria crossed quickly to the back of the box and held out both hands over the mage, palms turned towards him.  
  
“Airspace: Metsu!” Golden light flared up around the mage. He shrieked in agony and fell to the floor as his magic was torn out of him. Aria went back to the front of the box.  
  
The soprano had stopped singing. The violinists had frozen. Every face was turned towards Aria's box.  
  
“From the beginning, please,” Aria called down, and settled back into his seat.

* * *

Juvia stepped away from the lacrima and exhaled.  
  
“Aria's at the opera? Guess we should expect him in about a week, then,” Bozo said. Juvia pursed her lips, because it would be unprofessional of her to comment on a fellow mage of the Element Four.  
  
“Juvia will find Lucy. Please notify Gajeel of the situation, if you see him.”  
  
“Will do,” Bozo said. Juvia went back upstairs. When she got to Master Jose's audience chamber, he was just coming out. He shut the door firmly behind him.  
  
“Is there a problem, Juvia?”  
  
“Where is Lucy?”  
  
“I dismissed her twenty minutes ago,” Master Jose said. “Have you not seen her? Oh, dear. She wouldn't have tried to go home, would she? She seemed _terribly_ overwrought...”  
  
Lucy wouldn't have left the guild. Lucy wasn't stupid, Juvia thought. Lucy also wasn't anywhere upstairs, or in the beer hall, or in the library, or the kitchen, or the bathrooms, or the small dormitory where two subdivisioners were currently unconscious in a haze of alcohol fumes.  
  
Rain began to patter on the roof of the beer hall. Juvia walked quietly from the bottom of the steps to the table where Sue and Bozo were sitting.  
  
“Juvia cannot find Lucy,” Juvia said. “Have you seen Lucy?”  
  
“Not since you both came in like an hour ago,” Sue said, and looked up. She blanched. “H-hey... what's with that face?”  
  
Juvia didn't answer. She turned and raced out of the hall into the street. Lucy could not have tried to go home! Why would Lucy have left Juvia? But Lucy was not in the guild hall, and there was nowhere else she could have gone, and if she had gone out then Fairy Tail could have-  
  
Juvia ran straight into Gajeel with a splash.  
  
“Hey! Lockser! Look where you're going!” He swiped water off his face with a disgusted noise.  
  
“Juvia cannot find Lucy!” Juvia cried.  
  
“So?” Gajeel said. “You're not keeping her on a leash, are you? I know you're clingy, but that's going too far.”  
  
“Fairy Tail has kidnapped her!”  
  
“What?” Gajeel screwed his face up. “Is that something that happened, or something you imagined?”  
  
“Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer tried to kidnap her! We defeated him, but now I don't know where Lucy is!”  
  
“What? That trash!” Gajeel clenched his fists. “You think another one's grabbed her? Are you sure?”  
  
Juvia wavered. “Juvia is not certain. But Lucy is not in the guild, and if she tried to get home-”  
  
“-then she might have got there, right? Don't freak out when you don't even know she's in trouble! Where's she live, anyway?”  
  
Lucy's flat was two doors away from Juvia's house. Juvia pushed one finger into the lock, reshaped her water until it matched Lucy's door key, and twisted. The door opened.  
  
“Handy,” Gajeel said.  
  
“Lucy? Lucy!” Juvia shouted, hurrying up the stairs. Lucy didn't answer.  
  
“Oi, princess!” Gajeel yelled.  
  
“She wouldn't answer you if she didn't answer me,” Juvia said.  
  
“Maybe she didn't hear you,” Gajeel said, and imitated Juvia's high nervous voice. “Lucy, Lucy!”  
  
Juvia ignored that. “Lucy cannot have been here since we were attacked. Look!” Lucy's whip and ice knuckleduster had been tossed casually onto the kitchen table. “If she had come here, she would have retrieved any weapons she had!”  
  
Gajeel sniffed the air. “She ain't been here in a while. The place stinks of her, but nothing recent.”  
  
“Why does Gajeel keep repeating what Juvia tells him?” Juvia said.  
  
“Why are you the only one who gets to investigate? I can detect shit too!”  
  
Juvia's house was empty as well. The conclusion was obvious: Lucy had tried to go home to her flat, or to Juvia's house, and been ambushed by Fairy Tail on the way. Juvia wailed. The rain hammered on the roof.  
  
“Calm down!” Gajeel barked. “We're going to kick the shit out of them for this anyway. You can rescue Lucy at the same time – not that it's worth the effort if she managed to get her ass handed to her by the Fairy Butts, but if that's what you want I can't be bothered to stop you,” he added quickly. “Let's head back to the guild!”  
  
When they returned, Master Jose had left for the headquarters. Juvia and Gajeel marched straight up to the communications lacrima to shout over each other at him.  
  
“We need to rescue Lucy!” Juvia said.  
  
“We need to punish the bastards!” Gajeel barked. “And I guess save the blonde princess. If there's time.”  
  
“They could have already sent Lucy back to her father!” Juvia cried. “He could have locked her in his attic! He could lock her in his attic and feed her rats until she goes mad!” She buried her face in her hands. Out of sight, Master Jose rolled his eyes.  
  
“Wait, is that why they want her?” Gajeel asked. “Her dad's paid them off?”  
  
“...Why did Gajeel think they wanted her?” Juvia asked.  
  
“Well-” Gajeel cupped his hands about a foot in front of his chest.  
  
“No,” Juvia said.  
  
“Gajeel. Juvia,” Master Jose said. “Obviously, it was foolish of Lucy to allow herself to be captured, but there's no reason to believe she's in any danger. Don't do anything rash. In fact, don't do anything unless I tell you to.”  
  
“Master!” Gajeel and Juvia said simultaneously.  
  
“This is an order,” Master Jose said. His eyelids drooped down, giving his face a sinister cast. “Makarov will be punished for daring to insult me this way, and his pathetic excuse for a guild will be crushed beneath our superior strength. The preparations to mobilise the Headquarters are already underway. Which is why I don't want either of you charging into their guild hall now demanding Miss Heartfilia back! Is that clear?”  
  
“Yes, Master,” Gajeel said.  
  
Master Jose turned his attention to Juvia.  
  
“Is that clear, Juvia?”  
  
“Yes, Master,” Juvia said grudgingly.  
  
“Good. Please call the rest of the First Division and order them to Magnolia,” Master Jose said, and deactivated his communications lacrima. Why had Master Jose not told Juvia to do that when he sent her to call the rest of the Element Four? Juvia supposed it could have been simply an excuse to send her away, if Master Jose had wanted to speak to Lucy in private. She stalked out onto the mezzanine and banged her hands down on the railing. “Juvia wants to act _now_!”  
  
“Calm down! Master's planning, isn't he? She'll be back before the shops close,” Gajeel growled. Juvia leant against the railing of the mezzanine, her lower lip sticking out. “Juvia is worried! Juvia doesn't know where Lucy is or if she is hurt or-”  
  
“Ugh, I'm not going to deal with all this feelings crap,” Gajeel grumbled, and stomped past her down the stairs.  
  
The front doors swung open wide. “Excuse me!” a woman called. “We have a message for Master Jose from Master Makarov!”  
  
Gajeel stopped. Juvia lifted her head. Three Fairy Tail mages were standing in the doorway. Titania Erza, instantly recognisable, red hair soaking wet and plastered flat to her skull from Juvia's rain; Mirajane, the pinup girl, less recognisable when fully dressed; and her younger brother, 'Beast Arm' Elfman. Gajeel grinned and started down the steps, clenching his fists so that the leather of his gloves creaked. This ought to be fun -  
  
Then Juvia stormed straight past him. “ _Where is Lucy Heartfilia_?”  
  
Mirajane took a step back. “What do you mean?”  
  
“We have no interest in where Lucy Heartfilia is,” Erza said, stepping forward past Mirajane. “You're Juvia of the Deep, yes? We received a request to retrieve her, but-”  
  
“We know that,” Gajeel sneered. “Considering your weakass Dragon Slayer already tried to jump her and got his ass kicked for it.”  
  
Mirajane went white. “... _Natsu_ ,” Erza snarled, with murder in her eyes.  
  
“What did you do with him?!” Mirajane demanded.  
  
“Said he got his ass kicked, didn't I?”  
  
“This is enough talking!” Juvia screamed. “Water Slicer!”  
  
“Mira, run!” Erza shouted and leapt forward, requipping into a skimpy green armour that resembled seaweed as she did. She slashed away two of the water arcs. The others hit square across her torso. One of the shoulder plates fractured. “She's overloading the armour?” Erza gasped. “Mira! _Run_!”  
  
Mirajane whirled and fled out of the door. “Bozo, Sue! Don't let her get away!” Gajeel barked. He raced down the steps and swung an iron-fisted punch at Elfman, who caught it in both hands, one human and one with scales like a lizard's.  
  
“Not bad, for scum,” Gajeel sneered.  
  
“A man is still a man even if he's scum!” Elfman retorted.  
  
“Gihihi!” Gajeel said. He transformed one leg into an iron bar and slammed a vicious kick into Elfman's solar plexus that sent him flying backwards, air wheezing from his lungs. “Don't flatter yourself. Trash's just trash!”  
  
Juvia brought both her hands together. “Water Blast!” Even through the armour's nullifying field, the jet of high-pressure water swept Erza off her feet, spun her over and around and slammed her into the wall. The plaster cracked and the bricks cratered under the impact. Her sword was torn from her hand. One of the greaves cracked.  
  
Erza staggered to her feet, dizzy and dripping wet. The armour couldn't take another hit like that. Juvia stretched out both hands and screamed “Water Cyclone!” A magical seal formed in front of her and blasted out a torrent of raging water. Erza requipped a pair of cutlasses, and as the maelstrom hit she sliced through it in a blur of gleaming metal. The cyclone collapsed. Erza leapt through the falling water and slashed both cutlasses downwards straight through Juvia's chest. Juvia didn't bother to dodge. All the attack achieved with bringing Erza into close range.  
  
“Water Jigsaw!” Juvia's body transformed into a whirling mass of blades. Erza was flung aside into a table, which broke under the impact. The subdivisioners who had been sitting there scrambled up and ran. The sea-green armour shattered.  
  
Erza had requipped into a new set of armour before the pieces could even hit the ground. This one was white and pale blue, with gold trim and a skirt made from four leaves of fabric. A spear with two points solidified in her hands. She spun the spear over her head, electricity crackling as it built up between its twin points, and brought it down hard. “Lightning Strike!”  
  
The electric bolt tore through Juvia and threw her down, but her agonised cry rose higher and became a scream of fury. “Juvia doesn't care what you do! Juvia doesn't care about pain! Juvia will not forgive anyone who tries to take Lucy away from her!”  
  
“Is she a berserker?” Erza rasped.  
  
Juvia slammed both palms against the floor. “Sierra!” The water that made up her body boiled. Erza switched armour again, to a white leather leotard with orange pauldrons and a pair of one-handed swords, and gripped the hilts tight. Juvia lunged at Erza.  
  
Erza brought her swords up, aimed squarely at Juvia's chest, and Juvia hurled herself onto them. There was a sick wet squelching sound as she forced her body further onto the blades, until the hilts were buried in her chest. Erza stumbled back. Juvia brought her fist up, surrounded with pressurised water, and nailed Erza with a solid left hook. It was like being blasted with a fire-hose at point-blank range. Erza went flying, skidded along the floor, and crashed into the wall.  
  
“Erza!” Elfman yelled.  
  
“Pay attention!” Gajeel shouted, and landed a solid punch to Elfman's gut that doubled him over. Gajeel brought both iron-scaled fists down on the back of the other mage's neck, and he crumpled to the floor. Gajeel planted a boot square on Elfman's head.  
  
“Should I finish this trash off?” he asked the guild as a whole.  
  
“Finish him off!” they roared. Gajeel swung one arm up and transformed it into an iron bar. Erza staggered to her feet, and as Gajeel brought his arm down for a killing blow she threw herself between him and Elfman. The impact of the iron bar across her back knocked her down and left her sprawling over Elfman. Her armour disintegrated, leaving her in a plain white blouse and blue skirt.  
  
Gajeel put the boot in a couple of times, in an experimental way, but neither of the Fairy Tail mages moved. They weren't getting up again in a hurry.  
  
“Trash,” he said. “Master Jose'll want them taken to the headquarters.”

* * *

Mira raced through the streets, breath sawing in her throat. Nothing was familiar. She didn't recognise anything she saw. She'd badly lost her way. She needed to get out of Oak Town and back to Magnolia, tell Master what had happened-  
  
Mira's feet stopped moving. The rest of her tumbled forward onto the ground. “Ow!” Mira tried to scramble back to her feet and couldn't. Her legs were paralysed. “Let me go!” Mira shouted, staring around wildly for her attacker. “Where are you?”  
  
“Over here! Hello!” A green-haired boy with headphones around his neck ambled into her line of sight. “So, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like-”  
  
Mira flicked her fingers at his face. “Sleep!” The Phantom mage's eyes rolled up in his head and he fell backwards.  
  
Behind Mira, a girl gasped “Rossa!” There was another one?! Mira twisted to look around. A heavy staff slammed into the back of her head. Lights burst behind her eyes. She slumped forward. Lee Annur hurried to Rossa's side.  
  
“Hey! Lee! You got her!” Sue called, as she and Bozo hurried up. “What's wrong with Rossa?”  
  
“That bitch knocked him out,” Lee Annur said. She pulled Rossa's arm over her shoulder and stood up, pulling him with her. His head lolled against her shoulder. “Do you think he'll be okay?”  
  
“Well, he's survived moped crashes, burning buildings and being eaten by a kraken, but yeah, falling over in the street, that's _lethal_ ,” Bozo said.  
  
“Maybe in the future you should wrap him up entirely in cotton wool and keep him in a box,” Sue suggested.  
  
Lee Annur made a rude gesture at both of them and added “Agares, begone,” to the crocodile-demon, which vanished in a puff of brimstone.  
  
“Thanks for that,” Sue said, looking down at Mirajane. “No, seriously, thanks, zero sarcasm. Guess what Gajeel did? Told us to chase after her and then started brawling in the doorway.”  
  
Lee Annur rolled her eyes. “Typical – what's she done, anyway?”  
  
Bozo and Sue both looked at her oddly. “You haven't heard?”  
  
“Heard what?” Lee Annur said. “We saw Fairy Tail's chief slut running for it and Rossa figured we should stop her.”  
  
“...typical,” Sue said.

* * *

Lucy woke up face-down on the floor with her wrists tied behind her back. For a moment, she lay still, puzzled by the cold stone under her cheek. She lifted her head up, mumbled a dozy “Huh... hey, is anyone-” and then reality caught up with her.  
  
She'd been captured by Fairy Tail!  
  
Lucy sat up and stared around. Her heart was pounding. She was in a tiny stone cell. Her keys weren't on her belt. She kicked out against the floor and couldn't feel Serpens' key in her boot.  
  
The room was completely bare and empty, nothing she could use as a weapon. She couldn't see any sign of where she was or how long she'd been lying there unconscious. There was a tiny barred window in the steel door, though. Lucy got to her feet with difficulty and went to peer through the window. Master Jose looked back at her.  
  
Lucy gasped and threw herself backwards. She landed on her bound wrists with a cry of pain. Master Jose pushed the door open.  
  
“Master?! What's going on?” Lucy scrambled to her feet. Was he here to help her?  
  
He was smiling like he wasn't here to help her.  
  
“Objecting to the conditions, are we?” Jose smirked down at her. “True, this filthy cell is hardly fitting accomodation for a young lady of your status, but you are currently a prisoner so I hope you'll be understanding."  
  
It took Lucy a second to understand that. “You – you're - you can't imprison me! I'm in your guild!”  
  
Master Jose chuckled. Lucy backed away from him. “I'm afraid that's exactly why I can imprison you. We have accommodation prepared for an honoured guest, rather than for a prisoner-”  
  
“What's that supposed to mean?” A millipede ran over her foot. Lucy kicked it off and stamped on it.  
  
“If you show a little more cooperation than you have, I'll transfer you to the luxury suite,” Jose promised. Lucy could guess that the luxury suite would still have locks on the doors and bars on the windows. A prison in a palace with mile after mile of gardens and a regiment of fawning maids was still a prison. She exploded.  
  
“I'm not going back! I'm not going back to that house!”  
  
“Oh, my,” Jose said. “What a troublesome young lady.” He was smirking.  
  
“Let me go, right now!” Lucy barked. “I'm a mage of your guild! Doesn't that mean anything to you?” Hot tears stung her eyes. “I would have been better off if Fairy Tail caught me!”  
  
“Now, now,” Jose chided her. “Throwing a tantrum won't achieve anything.”  
  
Lucy swallowed back an angry retort, because he was right. She lifted her head and looked around the cell. No way out except the door Jose was standing in. Behind him, she could see sky and distant mountains. It sparked off a faint memory. Something Sue had said, about the prisons at the headquarters...  
  
“I can get out of here,” she said, though there was a tremor in her voice.  
  
Jose laughed. “You have heard of our Sky Cells, yes?” Lucy nodded. That was what Sue had called them. Jose turned and gestured out to the vast expanse of sky. The wind ruffled his cloak. Lucy took a step forward. “You are a hundred feet above the ground.” Lucy took another step forward. “Even if you were able to get through the door, you would still have to-” Lucy tackled him through the door and off the ledge. They fell, screaming.


	11. Trouble

Lucy screamed. The wind whipped through her hair. The ground was rushing up to meet them. The little wings on Jose's cape burst open, ten or twenty times the size they had been, and beat wildly. It wasn't enough to arrest them in freefall, but they were well below terminal velocity when they hit the ground.  
  
The impact knocked all the air out of both of them, but Jose had landed first and Lucy on top of him. She struggled gasping to her feet, booted him square in the crotch and ran. Behind her, Jose curled up into a wheezing, injured ball.  
  
Good, Lucy thought, and ran faster.

* * *

The Oak Town guildhall was a hive of activity. The three Fairy Tail mages were being taken to the headquarters, Elfman and Erza Scarlet still unconscious and Mirajane bound and gagged. A number of First Division mages were going with them, Lee Annur among them with Rossa slung across her demon Marchosias's back. Bozo was using the communications lacrima to put out an all-divisions bulletin, calling all First Division mages to Magnolia and putting the subdivisions on standby. The rest of the First Division were getting ready for a fight.  
  
Since Bozo was using the communications lacrima, Juvia, Gajeel and Totomaru, just arrived from Amaryllis, were taking their orders from a thought projection of Master Jose's in his office. The master's hat was askew and his cape rumpled. He had obviously been working hard to mobilise the headquarters; Juvia was grateful.  
  
“So we're attacking the guild hall directly?” Totomaru asked, drumming his fingers on the hilt of his katana.  
  
“Yes! That must be where she's- that must be where those _terrible_ people are keeping her,” Master Jose said. “You three will lead a surprise attack on their glorified bar. The headquarters will arrive shortly afterwards, and then the remainder of the First Division can sweep the city for survivors. Every last Fairy mage will be stamped out. Makarov cannot be allowed to get his hands on the Heartfilia fortune!”  
  
“And Lucy, Master. We don't want him to have his hands on Lucy either,” Juvia reminded him.  
  
“Oh. Yes. Of course not,” Jose agreed. Juvia wasn't so naïve as to think that Master Jose really cared about Lucy – he was interested in avenging an insult to his guild and keeping a potential resource out of Master Makarov's hands – but there was a murderous glitter in his eyes that Juvia was happy to have turned against Lucy's enemies.  
  
“Is there word on when Sol and Aria will arrive?” she asked.  
  
“Aria'll show up just in time to jump someone from behind and take all the credit for eliminating them,” Totomaru guessed. “Sol's a creepy bastard, who needs him?”  
  
“What the hell do you know about it?” Gajeel growled. “Aria's a lot creepier than Sol is.”  
  
“Juvia would like it if everyone could concentrate on the matter at hand,” Juvia said.  
  
“When was the last time Aria burst out of the ground and looped himself around someone like a boa constrictor? Does Sol still pull that crap about his monocle telling him things?” Totomaru asked Gajeel. “Why does he do that? Everyone knows he just read it in the paper.”  
  
“This is _not helping_ to find Lucy!” Juvia screamed. Totomaru and Gajeel both blinked at her in startled horror. Totomaru mimed zipping shut his mouth.  
  
“Gentlemen, Juvia,” Master Jose said, “Aria and Monsieur Sol plan to travel directly to Magnolia. I am sure they will _rendez-vous_ with you promptly upon your arrival. Are you all quite ready?”

“Juvia is ready to fight, master!”  
  
“Looking forward to it,” Gajeel growled, with a grin that bared all his sharp teeth.  
  
“We should have trashed those Fairy shits years ago,” Totomaru said.  
  
“Good,” Jose said, and signed off.  
  
The three mages headed for the door. Totomaru swung it open wide, disturbing the still air, and held it open for Juvia.  
  
“Gajeel?” Juvia asked.  
  
“In a minute,” Gajeel growled. Totomaru shrugged, and the two of them headed downstairs. Gajeel had caught a familiar scent. Perfume and hair stuff, herbs and flowery smells he was too manly to be able to identify and a sharp metallic tang underneath it. Ashley? Well, no shit. She'd been in there the night before, hadn't she? And the way she drenched herself in perfume it was phenomenal that Gajeel could smell anything else.  
  
Still, it smelt fresher than that. He followed it to one of the bookcases and scowled over the fancy-looking leather-bound volumes on display. A book of children's stories, a couple of history books, atlases, Diseases of the Cow Vol. IV – He picked Diseases of the Cow off the shelf and rifled through it. Inside a cutout compartment he found the princess's keys. Gajeel held them up by the keyring for a long moment, staring at them.  
  
“Stupid bitch forgot her keys,” he said finally. He clipped them onto his belt and left.

* * *

When Lucy pushed the front door of the guildhall open, twenty minutes later, the rest of First Division was already gone. A few mages from Subdivision Three looked up. “Weren't you supposed to be kidnapped?” one of them said, astonished. “I heard Fairy Tail had run off with Gajeel's woman.”  
  
“I'm not Gajeel's woman,” Lucy snapped. They blinked at her. Lucy backpedaled. “...so, obviously, they've kidnapped whoever is? Where's everyone gone?”  
  
“Magnolia,” one of them said, as if it should be obvious. “Or the headquarters, but the headquarters is going to Magnolia too.”  
  
Lucy would have just missed them, then. She'd taken the long way back to Oak Town, because the main route would have been the first place Master Jose would have looked for her. Either way, Juvia was going to Magnolia, and therefore so was Lucy.  
  
She stopped off at home briefly to get her whip and knuckleduster, and then headed for the train station.

* * *

As Loke passed her, Cana looked up from the tarot reading she was doing for Bisca, and Romeo asked “Where are you going?” He was leaning on the table, watching with interest. Cana had already agreed that he could have the next go.  
  
“Brunch with... uh... Carmen? It's probably Carmen. It's _definitely_ brunch.”  
  
“Feeling better, then?” Cana asked, and got a patented Loke sparkling grin and a wink for her concern.  
  
“How could I be ill with so many beautiful girls around?” He breezed out of the hall with a wave. Cana turned back to the tarot.  
  
“Okay, third card stands for the future-” She flipped it over. “Four of Wands! That's good. It stands for celebration, jumping around like an excited little kid, letting go of limitations...” She glanced pointedly towards Alzack. Bisca was looking at the card, and completely missed it. Cana took another swig of her beer and reached for the fourth card. “This one stands for-”  
  
The front doors crashed open and Loke was flung through them. He hit the bar, rolled over it and fell limply to the floor on the other side. “I didn't know Loke could fly!” Laki Olietta said in astonishment.  
  
Cana swung to face the door. The morning sunlight streaming through it silhouetted a massive hulking man with violently spiky hair. He laughed. “Gihihi!” A slim young woman in a tall hat slipped past him.  
  
“Please permit Juvia to make introductions. We are Phantom Lord.”  
  
Cana threw the table aside, scattering her tarot deck, snatched up Romeo and dived out of Bisca's way. Bisca requipped her rifle, raised it to her shoulder in one smooth motion, and fired.  
  
“Form Mirror!” someone yelled. A wall of shimmering mirrors materialised in front of the Phantom mages. The first burst of attacks – Bisca and Alzack's rounds, Max Alors' sand blast, and Macao's purple bullets – were swallowed up in the mirrors.  
  
“Get down!” Cana shouted, and threw herself down on top of Romeo, shielding him with her body, a moment before the mirror wall spat their attacks back out. Macao's bullets shattered the woodwork above the bar. One of Alzack's Spark Shot bullets hit Bisca. She shrieked and crumpled to the floor.  
  
“Bisca!” Alzack shouted, and ran to her side, just as Laki Olietta pressed both her hands to the ground. “Wood-Make: Dam of Shy Love!”  
  
The wooden arsenal that erupted from the ground hit several of the Phantom Lord mages, flinging them right off their feet. It hit Alzack, too. Cana scrambled to her feet and towards the back of the room, dragging Romeo with her. Where was their master? Hadn't he been upstairs? Wakaba Mine tried to cast Smoke Crush, but he was sent flying backwards and his pipe knocked from his mouth when Chico=C=Hammitt's limp body was thrown into him. The slender woman in the tall hat was a blur of scything water, and her voice was raised in a scream of fury. “Where is Lucy? Tell me what you've done with Lucy!”  
  
Who the _hell_ was Lucy?  
  
A Phantom Lord mage with rough stony skin loomed over Cana, both hands spread wide. “Elemental Dar-”  
  
Cana flung a card into his face. “Sleep!” He toppled backwards. Cana raced for the back of the room, dragging Romeo behind her, and shoved him at Macao. “Get him out of here!” Romeo ducked behind his dad. Cana reached for her pack of cards. The hall was too small and crowded with Fairy Tail mages for any of her wide-ranging spells. Cana gritted her teeth. She would take them out with individual sleep spells, if she had to!  
  
“Cana!” Makarov shouted. Cana's head snapped up. Makarov hurtled down the stairs, tossing Cana something small and round as he did. “Get them out of here!”  
  
Retreat from their own guild hall? Cana goggled, but swiftly regained her composure. A good mage of Fairy Tail would do whatever Makarov said, and being a good mage of Fairy Tail was the work of Cana's whole life.  
  
“Retreat! Everybody out!” she yelled. “Split up and meet at the safehouse!”  
  
“What?” Gray barked. “No way!”  
  
“Gray, out!” Makarov roared, and plunged into the fray.  
  
Gray hissed between his teeth but scooped up Chico and headed for the back door. The rest of Fairy Tail followed after him, spilling out onto the lake shore in a shambles and scattering. Cana threw a quick look back at her guild hall, almost choking on her fury, and ran. Master Makarov would be right behind them. Right?  
  
Back in the guild hall, the Phantom mages tried to chase after them. Makarov took on his Titan form, broke a rafter from the ceiling and swung it like a club. It sent the rank-and-file flying but swept harmlessly through Juvia's midsection. Totomaru somersaulted over it. Gajeel tried to grab the beam in both hands as it swung towards him, but was flung back into the wall instead. It cratered under the impact. Juvia charged in as Makarov turned away from her. “Water Slicer!” The arcs tore Makarov's orange shirt to pieces and knocked his striped hat off, but that was all.  
  
Gajeel clambered out of the wreckage, staggered, and made to attack again. Makarov dropped the rafter, turned and smacked Gajeel silly. The Iron Dragon Slayer fell squarely on his ass with a startled “Kyah!” Totomaru blanched and backed away. Juvia brought both her hands together. “Double Wave!” Twin waves burst through the floor and crashed against Makarov. He took a step back.  
  
“What the hell do you brats think you're doing, pulling a surprise attack like this?” he rumbled. “Tell Jose to come and fight me fair and square, if he wants to fight! Where are the kids I sent to you?”  
  
Gajeel got back to his feet and said “Locked up,” with a breathless effort at his usual chuckle. Makarov's eyebrows drew sharply together and he scooped up the rafter again.  
  
“You attacked people paying you a peaceful visit?”  
  
“Don't pretend you're the victim here, old man,” Totomaru drawled. He was circling around behind Makarov, his sword drawn. Juvia's voice rose to a scream.  
  
“You took Lucy! What have you done with Lucy?”  
  
“Lucy Heartfilia? We've done nothing with her. My kids would have told you we refused the mission,” Makarov growled.  
  
“Lies!” Juvia shouted. “You attacked us! Your Dragon Slayer attacked us and you _stole Lucy_!”  
  
“ _Natsu_?” Makarov stumbled back, aghast, and Aria materialised behind him.  
  
“So-so-so-” Makarov whipped around. Aria's voice rose, rattled the rafters and shook dust from the ceiling. “Sorrowful!” He cast Metsu. Makarov's magic poured out of him as golden light that filled the hall with unbearable brightness. Juvia and Totomaru turned away, covering their eyes. Gajeel watched, and laughed. Fairy Tail's master toppled to the ground. Aria covered his blindfolded eyes with his hands and cried rivers.  
  
“...See? I told you,” Totomaru said. “We put in all the effort and Aria swoops in at the last moment to take the glory.” He sheathed his sword, folded his arms and sulked spectacularly. Gajeel was blinking and rubbing his eyes.  
  
Juvia turned aside and looked for Lucy. Fairy Tail's master's power hung heavy in the air and clouded her senses, but there was something a little strange about Lucy's magical aura, something like the sound of a plucked wire reverberating inside Juvia's skull, and that made it very easy to detect. “Lucy is not here,” she said.

* * *

The Fairies huddled in the safe house, a warehouse packed with crates. Gray was pacing in his boxer shorts. The rest of his clothes were lying on the floor of the guild hall. “I can't believe we left Loke and the old man!”  
  
“I thought he was going to follow us,” Levy said miserably. She was sitting between Jet and Droy and staring at her shoes.  
  
Kageyama leant over to Mickey Chickentiger and muttered something. “Oh!” Mickey said. “Kage says if the master hadn't stalled them we'd have lost a lot more people than that.” Kageyama looked aghast.  
  
“That's right. That's why he stayed,” Cana said shortly. “If they managed to take down the old man, what were the rest of us supposed to do?”  
  
“Fine,” Gray said, and blew out an exasperated sigh. “But what about Loke?”  
  
Cana had done a reading for Loke when she'd heard he was ill, nothing complicated, not anything she'd bothered to tell him about. The Five of Pentacles, the Nine of Swords... and Death. She'd decided he was moping about a bad breakup and blaming himself for it, and it wouldn't last much longer. Death usually only stood for change. That might be all it meant.  
  
“Gray, we'll fix it,” Cana said. She flipped her cards over. The Queen of Swords, obvious. The Tower – sudden crisis and revelation. The Lovers – really? _Erza_? The Five of Cups, for loss and pain, and the Chariot, for victory - Cana threw the cards aside. “It's useless! They're not telling me anything conclusive!” She scrubbed her hands across her face. “I think the master, Elfman and Mirajane are fine, just captured, but only because I keep getting the Eight of Swords – it signifies imprisonment – and Mira and Elfman have been turning up that one ever since Lisanna-”  
  
“If you can bring up something for Mirajane and Elfman but not Erza,” Levy said, going pale, “does that mean-”  
  
“It might just mean there's something else overshadowing what's going on now! I'm sure the reading would make perfect sense to _Erza_ ,” Cana said.  
  
“There's no way Erza would lose to Phantom mages. You don't know what you're talking about,” Gray snapped, nearly simultaneously. Levy raised both hands and settled into miserable silence. “Cana, can't you-”  
  
“Can't I do _what_?” Cana interrupted. “I've tried looking for the master and Erza, Mira and Elfman. I'm trying to think of a plan. You know I've never had any luck trying to find Mystogan and-” The lacrima in Gray's hand began to glow. He looked down at it in surprise. “...Gray, is that a communications lacrima?” Cana said.  
  
“I don't know. I was checking if there was power stored in it,” Gray said, and handed it over. It was the tiniest communications lacrima Cana had ever seen. Most likely it could only reach other communications lacrimae, not any person anywhere like the big one in the guild hall, and maybe only specific ones, like the magical equivalent of a tin can telephone.  
  
“Hello?” she said to it hesitantly. “This is Cana of Fairy Tail.” The glow brightened a little, but there was no answer. Cana looked at Gray, who shrugged. She tapped it with a fingernail. It went 'ting'. “Is this thing working?”  
  
“It's working,” someone confirmed in a low voice. Cana jumped.  
  
“Right! Uh... We're at war with Phantom Lord. They just attacked our guild hall and captured our master.”  
  
“Understood.”  
  
The glow dimmed. Cana held the lacrima out, looked at it, looked at Gray and then said “That must have been Mystogan. He's so _weird_.” The glow cut out entirely. “That wasn't exactly an offer to help, was it?”  
  
“He might help. If he can find a way of helping that doesn't involve... being near people,” Levy said. Cana thought about that, sighed and held the lacrima up again.  
  
“Luxus.”  
  
The lacrima began to glow. A collective wince ran around the safehouse. Luxus's harsh voice echoed out of the lacrima. “What the hell do you want, old man?” He spoke to their master like that?  
  
Cana bit her tongue and said “It's Cana. The master isn't here. Phantom Lord attacked our guild hall and captured him. They probably have Erza, Mira and Elfman as well.” She shut her eyes. “We need your help.”  
  
There were a few long moments of silence, and then Luxus burst out laughing. “Serves the old geezer right!”  
  
“Luxus!” Cana snapped.  
  
“What? It doesn't have anything to do with me. Deal with it yourselves.”  
  
“Erza's missing! We can't-”  
  
“Let them rescue themselves! Fairy Tail doesn't need weaklings who let themselves be kidnapped by scum from Phantom!”  
  
“Luxus! Mira can't-”  
  
“Tell Mira if she agrees to be my woman, I'll help her out,” Luxus suggested, and laughed like a hyena. “And if the old man makes it out of this, tell him to retire! He's well past it, if Phantom Lord can get the drop on him!”  
  
“Luxus!” Cana snarled.  
  
“Hey! Is that any way to talk when you're asking for help?” She could hear him grinning. “You should-”  
  
“GO FUCK YOURSELF, LUXUS!” Cana roared. “WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN THIS GUILD? NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE! NOBODY WANTS YOU TO BE MASTER!” Luxus started to say something. “NO, LUXUS! SHUT! THE FUCK! _UP_!” Cana cut out the connection and flung the lacrima away. It rolled across the floor.  
  
Everyone stared at Cana. Their gazes turned slowly to the lacrima, as if it might explode into lightning at any moment. “I know, I know, I'm going to regret that,” Cana said. “Any minute now I'll start regretting that.” There was no point trying the Thunder God Tribe. The first question Freed would ask would be “What did Laxus say?”, and the lacrima probably couldn't hold that many connections anyway.  
  
Master captured, Erza captured, Laxus refusing to help, Mystogan... no idea, Elfman captured, Natsu gone on a mission – not that he was one of their real powerhouses, but he had a way of making everyone feel better – and then Loke and the heart of their guild, Mira...  
  
“We'll save them ourselves, then,” Cana said.  
  
“Finally!” Gray said, and headed for the door.  
  
“Gray!”  
  
He turned around. “What? We need to save the master and the rest of them! You just said-”  
  
“I know, but there could be the whole of Phantom and the Element Four between us and them!”  
  
“So?” Gray demanded.  
  
“So we need a plan first!” Cana snapped. “We can't just run in wildly and-” The floor shook. Cana looked down. “Did you feel that?” The floor shook again. Droy's hair stalk vibrated. “Gray, come on!” They raced outside. Gray created a set of ice steps leading to the roof and took them two at a time. Cana scrambled up behind him, but on the top step one of her high heels slipped and she nearly fell. Gray caught her wrist and hauled her safely onto the roof. They looked around. Magnolia Town stretched out before them, a sea of rooftops, the broad shimmering canal and the spires of the cathedral. The roof rattled under them. They turned around.  
  
There was a castle wading towards them through the lake. An actual castle, dug out along with the bedrock and walking on spindly metal spiderlegs. It was massive, much bigger than their own guild hall, so big it blotted out the horizon, and every step raised a giant wave to crash against the lakeshore. The tremor in the earth reached them a moment later.  
  
Gray stared, mouth open. Cana mentally totted up how many drinks she'd had and decided not enough. The castle hauled itself onto the shore. The rest of Fairy Tail spilled out of the safehouse and craned their necks to look up. The shadow of the castle fell over them as its legs straightened, rising until its foundations cleared the dome atop the Fairy Tail guild hall. It stepped forward, and shuffled. Gray cursed. Cana covered her mouth with her hands. The castle settled down on top of the guild hall.  
  
It crumpled like paper. Metal shrieked as the steel support columns bent and joints ruptured. The windows shattered and spat plumes of dust and fragments as the roof caved in. Cana screamed.

* * *

As the headquarters settled, its knee joints shrieked and vented great clouds of steam from the hydraulic lines. The floor listed slightly to one side, tipped too far back the other way as the pilot squad overcompensated, and rebalanced. Juvia stumbled a little as she came aboard. Fairy Tail's guild master was floating in the water bubble that levitated behind her. His face was still an unpleasant shade of green. Gajeel clumped after them.  
  
Master Jose stood on the staircase, his hands clasped tight behind his back. Sol bobbed and swayed at the foot of the steps.  
  
“All the little trash ran for it, but we caught their master,” Gajeel reported.  
  
“Good, good,” Master Jose said.  
  
“Master, Lucy wasn't in the guild hall,” Juvia told him. “Juvia is sure she would have detected her presence if she was!”  
  
“Hmm?” Master Jose said, a little distracted, glancing away from Master Makarov's bubble. “Juvia, you seem very... concerned about Miss Heartfilia. Which is laudable, of course, but don't you think it might be impairing your judgement?”  
  
“No,” Juvia said. “Juvia does not think that.”  
  
“Well, in the interests of finding our _precious lost lamb_ faster,” Master Jose said, smiling in a way that showed all his teeth, “Gajeel should take over looking for her.”  
  
“What?” Juvia and Gajeel said simultaneously.  
  
“Gajeel, I want you to find her, wherever she's lur – been hidden. Tear this town apart if you have to,” Master Jose ordered.  
  
“Master!” Juvia protested. “Juvia doesn't-”  
  
“That is an _order_ , Juvia!”  
  
Juvia huffed and pressed her lips into a thin line.  
  
“I've got a better nose than you, rainy. I'll find her sooner than you ever could,” Gajeel drawled. He made it sound like a taunt.  
  
Master Jose ignored the displeasure radiating off Juvia like heat off a fire and crossed to Makarov's bubble. “Hello, Makarov... it's been a long time, hasn't it? Since that regular meeting six years ago. Haha – I'm afraid I made a fool of myself that time. Obviously the wine went to my head...” Makarov glared woozily at a point somewhere to the left of Jose's head. Jose leant closer and lowered his voice. “Your hall is in ruins, Makarov. Your worthless guild is _finished_ and, wherever your 'children' have run to, _they_ _soon will be_.” Makarov glowered at him with helpless loathing.  
  
“Throw this trash in the cells,” Master Jose ordered, with undisguised glee, and turned away.


	12. Fairies Are Maybe Not Very Smart

Erza Scarlet had woken to find herself imprisoned. Her arms were stretched out and manacled to the wall at the wrists, and there was a tight band locked around her head to suppress her magic. From the way her shouts had echoed, it must be a small cell, and because of the cold and darkness she decided she must be underground. It was far too dark to see anything. The air smelt of engine oil and stagnant water. The floor seemed to sway under her, which she put down to residual dizziness. Escape seemed impossible.  
  
Erza meant to escape anyway.  
  
She slammed her head back against the wall. Pain flashed right around her skull, and before long the wall began to crumble, but eventually – on the fourteenth blow – the antimagic band cracked. Erza shook her head violently, flinging the pieces to the floor. Its stranglehold on her magic broke. She summoned two massive swords from her massive sword collection and levitated them directly in front of her, where she believed the manacles around her wrists to be. She wasn't actually able to see them.  
  
These blades were perfectly capable of cutting through iron and stone. If she accidentally severed one of her own hands, it was unlikely that she would even feel it, and it would be better to die or lose another body part than to fail in her duty to her guild.  
  
Erza drew a deep breath, closed her eyes and drove the swords forward, into the wall and through her restraints. There was a high scream from the cell next door.  
  
Erza opened her eyes. One of the sword blades was pressed close against the skin of her right wrist. She wiggled her fingers. Fortuitously, they were all still attached.  
  
“Mira? Elfman?”  
  
“Erza?” Mira called, breathless and startled, from next door. “A sword just came through the wall and nearly hit Elfman! ...oh, that was you.”  
  
Erza put on her Stealth Armour, a tight-fitting black outfit with split-toed boots, a scarf tied across her nose and mouth, and her red hair bound up in twintails. “I'm escaping!” she shouted loudly. “Stay where you are! I'll let you out in a moment!” She requipped a massive double-bladed axe, felt along the walls until her hand found the door of her cell and hacked through it. A pair of Phantom guards came running. Erza drove the base of the axe haft into the first one's throat, bludgeoned the other around the head with the flat of the blade and stepped over their weakly gasping bodies. The door to Mira and Elfman's cell was fastened with a heavy padlock. Erza sliced through it and kicked the door open.  
  
“Are you all right?” The dim light from the torches in the hallway showed that Mira had been strung up with her wrists above her head and Elfman was manacled to the walls in the same way Erza had been. The sword she had driven through the wall had come out below Elfman's left arm, a handspan from his ribcage. Mira lifted her head, blinking. Her face was stained with tears.  
  
“Mira! What happened?”  
  
“They caught me,” Mira said, and sniffled. “There wasn't anything I could do. I'm sorry, I'm so useless-”  
  
Erza cut her off by hacking through her chains. The axe blade bit deep into the stone wall. Mira fell forwards. Erza caught her. “You're not useless. You're the heart of our guild. I won't tolerate you calling yourself useless!” She glared at Mirajane, who quailed.  
  
“I-I'm sorry...”  
  
“Good.” Erza stood Mirajane up straight and went to release Elfman. There was another antimagic band locked around Elfman's head. “Hold still,” Erza ordered, and hefted her axe.  
  
“Wait, wait!” Mira interrupted. She reached around the back of his head and unclasped the band. “Are you all right, Elfman?” In answer, Elfman braced his back against the wall and pressed both arms forward. The chains snapped taut and creaked under the inexorable pressure. The bolts tore free from the wall. Mira hurried into his arms. “Elfman! Oh, Elfman, I'm sorry, I couldn't and after you tried so hard-”  
  
“It's my fault,” Elfman interrupted. “A man ought to be strong enough to protect his sister!”  
  
Mira wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “But-”  
  
“We should leave,” Erza said, before the Strausses could spiral into utter misery and self-loathing, and marched back out into the corridor. “Come on!” Mira and Elfman followed her. The corridor was narrow and lined with doors to other cells and flickering magical lamps.  
  
“Natsu!” Erza shouted. “If you're here, show yourself!” There was no answer.  
  
“I think I would stay in prison,” Mira said softly to Elfman.  
  
Erza exploded. “Natsu! Come out here and accept your punishment!” The shout reverberated off the walls. Mira stood on tiptoe to look through the windows of the other cells. They were all empty.  
  
“I don't think Natsu's down here. He must have escaped before being captured,” Mira said.  
  
“Natsu's a man! Men don't run!” Elfman disagreed, thumping one hand against his other palm.  
  
“Happy's not a man, and Happy can carry Natsu,” Mira pointed out. "Besides, if Natsu was here we wouldn't be able to miss him." She sighed. “He's so reckless! I suppose it can't be helped, since he's one of our mages.”  
  
Erza intended to solve the problem of Natsu's recklessness by removing his legs. She strode towards the stairs. “Let's go.” Several Phantom mages tried to stop them on the way out. Erza didn't give any of them a chance to raise the alarm.  
  
As they climbed through the cellar levels, the three of them became aware of the floor still listing under their feet, like the deck of a ship, and a distant dull regular thudding. Footsteps overhead? “It sounds like machinery,” Mira said. “What sort of machinery would there be in a castle?”  
  
They emerged onto the ground floor. Erza looked around, a sword held at the ready.  
  
“Should we try to stay out of sight?” Mira asked. “There'll be more of them than us, and it won't help Fairy Tail if we get recaptured before we can warn them.”  
  
“We'll try to avoid being recaptured,” Erza promised, though she thought they would have more luck fighting than trying to avoid it. The corridors were completely devoid of any places where the three of them could duck out of sight. Not that they were unadorned – the walls were divided at regular intervals by decorative plaster half-columns – but they were entirely bare of furniture. Darker areas showed on the walls where pictures had hung. Furniture removed in a hurry? Why?  
  
“A window!” Mira said, and pointed. Erza hurried forward, swung it open, and stopped. She had expected to see the rocky landscape around Oak Town. Instead, far below, blurred through the rain, were the rooftops of Magnolia and the clean sheet of Lake Sciliora. They were level with the spire of Caldia Cathedral.  
  
“What-” Erza leant out of the window. The ground was growing ever more distant. She looked to the side and saw the iron spiderlegs flex and lift the building higher. A walking castle? Erza scrambled out of the window, raced to the edge of the foundation and dropped to her knees at the edge to look over. Mira and Elfman followed her. Mira shrieked and pointed down. “Look!”  
  
Erza looked. Immediately below them, she saw the corner of a building with a red roof and a golden dome, but only for a moment before the walking castle moved over it.  
  
“ _That's our guild hall_!” Mira wailed.  
  
The walking castle settled down on top of their guild hall. The three of them felt the jarring through the bedrock, resistance catching and giving way as the roof caved in and the structural beams bent. Mira covered her ears against the noise of twisting metal and collapsing wreckage.  
  
A memory rose up suddenly in Erza's mind – the first time she ever saw the guild hall, the place that became her anchor in a lonely and unfamiliar world, and Master Makarov - “Rob sent you here? I suppose this is where you're meant to be, then.” She shut her eyes, crushed her horror and put on a cool mask. Mira had pressed her hands to her mouth. Her eyes were huge and glistening with tears. Erza's Stealth Armour dissolved, replaced by the Black Wing Armour. She reached out to Mira. “Come on.” Her mouth set into a hard line. “We're going to find the rest of our guild.”

* * *

The train crept into Magnolia station slowly and silently, as if it was trying not to be noticed. Lucy hopped out and yelled “Thank you!” to the driver. At the last station, Onibas, they'd already had word over the radio that Magnolia was under attack by a giant robot, and Lucy had had to ask really nicely with one hand on her whip before they had agreed to take her all the way.  
  
The station was under guard by Phantom mages. Every way out was sealed with a gleaming magical barrier. A metal automaton hawk perched on one of the ceiling beams, scanning the platforms with a slow regular rotation of its head. There were two Phantom mages loitering in the nearest exit.  
  
“Hi, Reilly, hey, Zel. How's the family?” Lucy asked, as she walked past them.  
  
“The kids? They were alive the last time I saw them, I figure that's good enough,” Zel said.  
  
“Mother of the year, right there,” Reilly drawled. “I thought I heard you got kidnapped?”  
  
“No, Lucy _Heartfilia_ got kidnapped. I'm Lucy Ashley,” Lucy explained, putting on an air of confidence. “I can see why you would get us mixed up, though. See you later!” She waved and set off down the street. The headquarters loomed over the town. Lucy headed straight towards it, sliding her fingers through her ice knuckleduster as she did. She passed through empty streets and over a bridge across a still canal. All the shops and houses were locked up, all the curtains drawn. It was like a ghost town. One cafe had its doors locked, lights off and blinds down, but there were still meals set out at the tables on the street. One was a big pepperoni pizza.  
  
Nobody was around, right? Lucy grabbed a slice and took a bite. Above, a window slammed open.  
  
“Hey! That's my pizza!”  
  
Lucy craned her head back. A red-faced man was hanging out of the window.  
  
“You can't chase us away from our table and then steal our food! I paid for that!” He shook his fist at her.  
  
Lucy considered that, and then took another bite of the pizza.  
  
“This is destruction of civilian property! I'll make a formal complaint to the Council about you!” Someone else inside was trying to drag him away from the window.  
  
“It's just a pizza!” Lucy said. “It was getting cold anyway!”  
  
“There's a Phantom mage here!” the red-faced man yelled. “Oi! Someone come deal with her!”  
  
“Hey! What's with your survival instincts?” Lucy demanded. “What kind of idiot-”  
  
“Don't yell at our civilians!” someone hollered at her. “Yell at your own civilians!”  
  
Lucy whipped around. Two people were marching towards her down the street. Or, more accurately, one was marching and one was sauntering after her with his hands in his pockets. The first was a girl wearing a long tiger-striped dress cut up to one hip plus demon horns, boxing gloves and a live blue bird perched on the top of her head. The other was a guy with a rueful grin, half-closed eyes and a dark ponytail that looked like the top of a pineapple.  
  
“...is that how it works?” Pineapple Head asked Tiger Stripes.  
  
“Yes, that's exactly how it works,” Tiger Stripes said. “We're mages of Fairy Tail! You'd better be ready to fight!” She pointed at Lucy, as if there was someone else around she might be challenging.  
  
Pineapple Head took a few hasty steps backwards and wished Tiger Stripes good luck.  
  
“What? Aren't you fighting?” she said.  
  
Pineapple Head rubbed the back of his neck. “For some reason, my parole agreement is really specific about not attacking members of other legal guilds.”  
  
“I'm not going to tell anyone,” Tiger Stripes said.  
  
“I think someone would notice that my arm'd been blown off.”  
  
“Oh man they really would, there'd be blood and Kage bits everywhere,” Tiger Stripes said. “That'd be nasty. Eurk.” She pulled a face. “We're at war, though! See if there's an exception.”  
  
Parole? “Are you that Eisenwalder Makarov adopted like he was a stray puppy?” Lucy asked Pineapple Head. “Are you guys really that hard up for recruits?” She took a careful step back.  
  
Pineapple Head dropped his gaze. Tiger Stripes' voice went flat. “Kage's a Fairy Tail mage.”  
  
Was that a sore spot? Angry enemies were easier to trick. Lucy touched her fingers to her lower lip, as if she were thinking. “Maybe Eisenwald trash is a step _up_ , for-”  
  
“ _What did you call him_?!”  
  
Lucy screamed and dived out of the way. Crap, she was fast! Lucy scrambled back to her feet and lashed out with her whip. The blue bird darted in front of Tiger Stripes and transformed into a hovering feathery shield. The whip cracked against the shield but didn't damage it. Tiger Stripes rolled under the bird shield, bounced back to her feet and charged.  
  
Lucy ducked under her punch and hit her in the mouth. The ice knuckleduster worked well as a regular knuckleduster, too. Tiger Stripes staggered back. The bird swooped in from Lucy's other side and burst into flame. Lucy leapt back, and back again as Tiger Stripes swung at her.  
  
“Are you even a mage?” Lucy demanded. “Do you just punch things with a bird? Is that it?”  
  
“Of course I'm a mage!” Tiger Stripes yelled. “I'm in a mage guild and everything! I couldn't be magier!”  
  
“Do some magic, then!” Lucy snatched up a jug of water from the cafe table and as the bird swooped at her head again, trailing sparks, she swung it at him. The neck went smoothly over the bird. The fire was extinguished with a hiss. Lucy flung the jug against the wall. It shattered. A shower of glass shards, water and a soggy bundle of feathers hit the pavement.  
  
“Pii!” Tiger Stripes shouted.  
  
Lucy took advantage of her distraction and ran away, back down the street towards the bridge. Tiger Stripes chased after her, and the red-faced man in the window cheered, but Lucy had a plan. At the edge of the canal, she spun and dropped to one knee as Tiger Stripes swung at her. Tiger Stripes stumbled. Lucy grabbed her around the waist and whirled her around into the canal. Tiger Stripes hit the water with a splash and a shriek. Lucy dropped down to ice the canal with her knuckleduster, but before she could Tiger Stripes burst back out of the water flailing. Lucy scrambled back.  
  
“Mickey?” Pineapple Head called. He was standing well behind them, leafing through a little book. “Are you a guild member in good standing?”  
  
“Yeah! I'm great at standing!” Tiger Stripes called back. “I can stand all day!”  
  
“...uh- _huh_.” Pineapple Head flicked through the pages. “Do I have your permission to, uh, 'engage in martial action against whatsoever enemies of'-” He looked up at Tiger Stripes' blank face. “- fight some people?”  
  
“Sure!” She threw her hands out wide, scattering drops of water. “Knock yourself out!”  
  
Crap. Lucy swung her whip back again, ready to lash out or block a spell, but when the attack came it was from the ground under her feet.  
  
“Shadow Knuckle!” Lucy didn't even see it, but the blow sent her skidding across the paving stones. Her whip flew out of her hand. “Shadow Orochi Bind!” Pineapple Head lifted both hands, and snakes that seemed to be made entirely of darkness burst out of Lucy's own shadow and wound around her. She was pinned flat to the ground.  
  
Tiger Stripes had hauled herself out of the canal by now. She squelched across to them. “Good job, Kage!” She dropped to her knees next to Lucy and raised both hands, fists together, to bludgeon her unconscious.

Lucy surrendered in a hurry.  
  
There was a moment of silence. Tiger Stripes looked at Pineapple Head, baffled. “What does she mean, she surrenders?”  
  
“It means the cessation of hostile activity in exchange for being captured rather than killed outright. Usually it's not a good idea... Uh, does the guild have a policy on prisoners of war?”  
  
“I don't know! I never had anyone surrender before,” Tiger Stripes said.  
  
Oh, _no_. Lucy had surrendered to complete idiots.  
  
Not that she was _genuinely_ surrendering, of course. It was just the simplest way not to have her head knocked in at that exact moment. As soon as she got a chance, she was going to be out of there.  
  
“Well,” Pineapple Head said doubtfully, “we could take her to Cana.”

* * *

In the control room at the Phantom Lord headquarters, the radio hissed and buzzed. Snatches of irritable debate escaped between the static, until finally the signal cleared.  
  
“-you that would do it,” someone said smugly. “Okay! Three-thirty p.m., Magnolia station reporting in! You ready?”  
  
The control squad mage who'd drawn the short straw of minding the radio bounced his pen absently off his clipboard and tipped his chair a little further back. “Shoot.”  
  
“No Fairies, no trouble.”  
  
“Great. Ta. Appreciated.”  
  
“There was one train came in about quarter-past,” someone else added. “But nobody got off it except Lucy Ashley, and they cleared out pretty-”  
  
“What?” Master Jose hissed, looming over the radio. The control squad mage squawked and fell backwards off his chair. The sounds of a minor scuffle came over the radio as everyone at the station suddenly fought to be further away from it.  
  
“Erm,” the loser said. “A train came in about a quarter of an hour ago down the line from Onibus. Lucy Ashley – she's Gajeel's girlfriend, right? - got off and headed into the town, and the train went on to Hargeon. We haven't seen any Fairies, or a speck of Lucy Heartfilia-” The radio exploded. The control squad mage was still on the floor. Everyone else ducked the flying bakelite shrapnel. Master Jose stalked out of the room, tombstone teeth bared.  
  
“What was that about?” one mage asked, and was met with a resounding shrug. The control mage poked his head up over the table.  
  
“Crap. I think that was the only radio,” he said.

* * *

A floor below, Juvia was standing in front of the communications lacrima in the headquarters' main audience chamber. Sue stuck her head around the door. “Juvia? Sorry to interrupt. Have you seen a green-haired guy with headphones wandering around? Lee Annur's lost him.”  
  
“No,” Juvia said. “But I am very sorry that Miss Annur has lost her friend.”  
  
“Yeah, he isn't around to keep an eye on her,” Sue said. “And she's not around to keep an eye on her, which might be worse. That'll be trouble. For someone who isn't me.” She hesitated for a moment, and said “Uh. Could you tell Master Jose something?”  
  
Juvia glanced up. “What is it?”  
  
“You know we put Mirajane, Elfman and the Titania in the cells? They're... not so much there any more.”  
  
Juvia whipped around. “You allowed them to _escape_?”  
  
“Not me! I wasn't anywhere near it, I wasn't responsible for that!” Sue protested. “It was the trash we set guarding them!”  
  
Juvia seethed. “I will tell the master,” she said shortly. “You will leave.”  
  
“Got it,” Sue said, and fled.  
  
Inwardly, Juvia stamped and snarled and gnashed her teeth. Erza Scarlet had been allowed to escape? Juvia had been ordered to remain in the headquarters and dispatch intruders while one of Fairy Tail's strongest mages had been allowed to escape and form another obstacle between Juvia and Lucy? She wanted to go and look for Lucy! Why would the master not allow her to look for Lucy? Juvia turned back to the lacrima crystal.“Headquarters Mark Two to Blackthorn Town, Subdivision Five! What's taking you so long?”  
  
“We're coming as fast as we can!” the man on the other end snapped. “Bloody subdivision trash can't tie their own shoelaces, let alone-” On his end of the connection there was a sudden outbreak of shrieks and a loud explosion. “Bloody hell! See what I have to deal with here?” he said. “They're all complete-”  
  
There was another shout. “ _Matenrou_!”  
  
“Oh, shi-!” the man said, and the connection cut out. Juvia banged her fists on the lacrima.  
  
“Headquarters Mark Two to Blackthorn Town, Subdivision Five! Answer me!” There was no reply. Subdivision Five's lacrima had been destroyed.  
  
Juvia wailed and stamped her feet. This was intolerable! How could she be expected to stay quietly in the headquarters? It was impossible! It was unforgivable to have tolerated it this long! She was going to go and find Lucy, and if Erza Scarlet tried to stop her then Juvia would slice her head from her shoulders! She spun and stormed towards the door. It slammed open. Master Jose stalked in. Juvia stopped. “Master?” He didn't answer. He just indicated for her to step aside. Juvia obeyed. “Master, I want to-”  
  
Master Jose rapped the surface of the lacrima and activated loudspeaker mode. “Good afternoon, Fairy trash. We know that Lucy Heartfilia is with you. If you do not give her up, we will turn the Jupiter Cannon on your pathetic excuse for a city. You have four minutes.”  
  
“...Fire Jupiter?” Juvia repeated blankly. “Where?”  
  
Master Jose rapped the lacrima again. “Audience Chamber to Munitions. Prepare to fire Jupiter. Select target at random.”  
  
“Master!” Juvia clutched at her hair. “That would hit civilians! It might hit _Lucy_! What are you doing?”  
  
“Are you questioning my orders, Juvia?”  
  
“Juvia is not-” Juvia started reflexively, and hesitated. “Yes, Juvia is questioning your orders! This is far too reckless! It could hit Lucy, and the Magic Council will not overlook firing a cannon at civilians!”  
  
Master Jose extended one arm out to his side. The shadows deepened in the corners of the room. The temperature dropped. Fear and nausea twisted in the pit of Juvia's stomach. She took a step back. “Master, Juvia does not think this is wise!”  
  
“ _Juvia_ this, _Juvia_ that,” Master Jose said. “Really, Juvia, that's a very childish habit.”  
  
Juvia stumbled. “That- Ju- I-” She clenched her fists. “Master cannot fire the cannon!”  
  
“I cannot?” Master Jose repeated. “How dare you tell me what I may and may not do? Have you forgotten that I am your guild master? Have you turned traitor as well?” Dim shapes began to emerge from the darkness.  
  
“Juvia has done no such thing!” Juvia protested. “Juvia is a loyal mage of Phantom Lord, and so is _Lucy_!”  
  
Master Jose paused for a moment. The shadows stilled. Master Jose's voice went sickly sweet and oily. “I do hate to have to tell you this, my dear, but Lucy Heartfilia is a spy. She has been working for Fairy Tail the whole time.”  
  
“...What,” said Juvia.  
  
“Lucy Heartfilia has been pretending to be a loyal Phantom mage,” Jose spelt out, “while secretly reporting on our activities to Makarov.”  
  
“Juvia is aware of what a spy is,” Juvia said. “Lucy cannot be a spy. If Lucy were a spy for Fairy Tail, why would they have tried to capture her?”  
  
“Obviously it was a planned withdrawal,” Master Jose said. “Saying that her father wants her to return home? What an obvious code.”  
  
“Why would they have staged an attack on Lucy rather than having her simply leave?”  
  
“So that they could provoke us into attacking them, clearly,” Master Jose said, and raised his hands as if he couldn't see how this could be any more obvious.  
  
“If they had planned to lure us into attacking them, why were we able to take them and their master by surprise at their guild hall?”  
  
“It was some diabolical scheme, I'm sure!” Juvia opened her mouth to object, because while Lucy could devise very good schemes – well, that was the point, Lucy could devise _very good_ schemes.  
  
“Really, Juvia!” Master Jose cut her off. “I'm offended that you don't believe me. Am I not your guild master?”  
  
“Juvia does not want to be disloyal! But Lucy cannot be a spy. She-” Juvia stopped, and then finally said “Lucy is Juvia's friend.”  
  
“Yee-ees,” Master Jose said. “Really, it's quite _suspicious_ that she was so keen to befriend _you_ , wasn't it?”  
  
“But-” Juvia started, and stopped. Master Jose raised a hand. One of his rings glittered strangely. Juvia found her gaze fixed on it.  
  
“If you think about it, you will find it makes perfect sense.”  
  
“Yes. It makes sense,” Juvia echoed blankly. Master Jose smirked. She took a step back. “Please excuse me.”  
  
Master Jose dismissed her with a wave of his hand. Juvia left the room, walked quietly down the hallway out of earshot and screamed. She wailed hysterically and tore at her hair. Her hat tumbled to the floor. The foundations of the earth crumbled, a vast emptiness of space opened up around her, she imagined Lucy eating cake with other people and outside the rain began to boil. It felt like her heart was being torn in two! “I can't, I can't stand it!” she gasped, whipping her head around in agony. How could she have been such a fool?  
  
LUCY COULD NOT BE FORGIVEN. JUVIA WOULD NOT FORGIVE.  
  
Juvia clutched at her head and gasped for breath. The floor shook under her. It took a moment for Juvia to realise that this was the interior of the headquarters shifting around her as the Jupiter cannon moved into firing position. There would be only four minutes between the order and the blast. Two had already gone.  
  
She broke into a run. The cannon could not be allowed to fire. Juvia did not want civilians to be harmed, and she would not allow Lucy to be destroyed by Jupiter. Juvia wanted to do that herself.  


* * *

“Good afternoon, Fairy trash.”  
  
Lucy's head snapped up. Her breath choked in her throat. That was Jose's voice! She looked around frantically. Where was he?  
  
“We know that Lucy Heartfilia is with you.”  
  
How did he know that? Was he watching her? Lucy spun around. The streets were empty.  
  
“Who?” Mickey said.  
  
“No idea,” said Kage.  
  
“If you do not give her up, we will turn the Jupiter Cannon on your pathetic excuse for a city. You have four minutes.”  
  
Kageyama and Mickey looked at each other, and then at Lucy's white face. “...so that's bad?” Mickey guessed. “What's the Jupiter Cannon?”  
  
“It's a giant magical cannon,” Lucy said.  
  
“I think we'd worked that out,” Kage said.  
  
“It's a giant magical cannon! Doesn't that cover it?” Lucy snapped. What was she supposed to do? If she told them who she was, they would hand her straight back to Jose with a bow on. If she didn't, he was going to blow up a whole chunk of Magnolia!  
  
In the distance, the Phantom headquarters began to rise up on its skinny legs and turn.  
  
“They're bluffing, right?” Mickey said.  
  
“Jose doesn't bluff,” Lucy said.  
  
Mickey and Kageyama looked at each other. “What do we do?” Mickey asked.  
  
“We find cover,” Kageyama said. "Right now."  
  
“Okay. Let's go,” Mickey said, and grabbed Lucy's wrist. Lucy hit her in the mouth and ran. Mickey staggered backwards. Lucy didn't get more than a few steps before her own shadow twisted, burst out of the ground and wrapped around her. She fell forwards. “Ow! Let me go!”  
  
Mickey dragged her back to her feet. Lucy twisted and tried to kick out. Her shadow held her tight. Mickey tossed Lucy over her shoulder and broke into a run. Lucy was bounced up and down as Mickey and Kageyama tore through the streets, until they burst into a warehouse and Mickey dropped Lucy unceremoniously on the floor. “Cana! What do we do?”  
  
“I don't-” The woman who was presumably Cana raked her hands through her long dark hair and stared at the headquarters with the blank, horrified eyes of someone realising there was nothing she could do. “Who's that?”  
  
“Phantom girl,” Mickey said. “She surrendered. She's pretty bad at surrendering though, don't get in punching range.”  
  
“One minute, thirty seconds.” That came from a boy inexplicably wearing only his boxers. Lucy climbed to her feet. Her mouth opened. She didn't say anything. More Fairies were flooding into the warehouse. That wasn't a clever tactic – if they were lucky they wouldn't lose anyone, but if they were unlucky then all of them would be taken out with one hit. She was totally surrounded.

Cana grabbed Lucy by the front of her shirt. “Why did you attack us?”  
  
“What?” Lucy said. “You attacked m- us!”  
  
“Cana, don't let her punch you!” Mickey said. “She's really punchy!” Like that was an option when she was surrounded by Fairies?  
  
“We didn't do anything to you!” Cana shouted at her.  
  
“You did! Your Dra-”  
  
“Where's Lucy?” Cana said. “That was what that water mage was yelling. That's what this is about!” Juvia! Juvia was looking for Lucy? What had Jose told her? That the Fairies had managed to kidnap her out of his office? Jose knew that wasn't true, though, so why was he looking for her with them? Was he just putting it on? Did he think she had defected to the Fairy trash after she escaped from him? Ugh! Juvia must be so worried about her, Lucy couldn't stand it!  
  
“One minute,” said the guy in his boxers.  
  
Lucy swallowed. Juvia would help her, right? Except Juvia was so loyal to Phantom Lord, and Lucy had sort of knocked Master Jose out of a window and kicked him in the crotch...  
  
“Fifty-five seconds,” said the guy in his boxers. “Fifty. Forty-five.”  
  
Cana shook Lucy until her eyes rattled in her skull. “Who the hell is Lucy?”  
  
Jose could blow up half of the city. She didn't have a choice! “I'm Lucy!” she said. “I'm Lucy Heartfilia. He's looking for me.”  
  
“You?” Cana looked Lucy up and down. “Be serious! Why?”  
  
“I threw him out of a window,” Lucy said. "I think he's mad about it."

Cana scrunched her face up. "What?"  
  
“Twenty seconds!” The guy in his boxers hurried to the door. Cana turned away from Lucy and went after him. Lucy followed them, stumbling. The barrel of the cannon was fixed on Magnolia's cathedral, and a vast cloud of dark energy swirled around the end of it. Cana covered her mouth with her hands.  
  
“Ten seconds,” said the boy in his underwear. Lucy counted down in her head. Nine, eight, seven-  
  
Revealing herself had been completely pointless. It was too late to do anything, even if there had been anything they could do.  
  
\- six, five, four -  
  
Lucy turned away and covered her face with her hands.  
  
\- three, two, one.  
  
Nothing happened. The cannon didn't fire. Lucy turned back and peeked between her fingers. Long seconds ticked away.

* * *

In Jupiter's Control Room, Juvia went to the control panel, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the cannon squad as she did. She hauled down on a lever. The collected magical power was released in a burst that shook the headquarters like an earthquake. Juvia turned and braced herself against the control panel as the room shook. She swiped one hand through the air. “Water Slicer!” Three arcs of razor-sharp high-pressure water cut the charging lacrima in to a dozen pieces that crashed to the floor.

That would suffice, Juvia decided. Now she would find Lucy.

* * *

The dark magic gathered around the end of the cannon's barrel shattered apart so violently it threw the headquarters back. Its spiderlegs scrabbled to keep it upright.  
  
“They were bluffing?” Cana said.  
  
Lucy stared. Something must have... Jose wasn't the sort to bluff, was he?  
  
“He must have been,” said the guy still wearing only his underwear.  
  
Why dissipate the gathered magic so quickly and so forcefully? Didn't that just show everyone that he wasn't going to follow through on a threat? You couldn't expect to be respected if you did that! Lucy struggled to figure that out, and she almost thought the pieces were falling into place when she was distracted by an angry voice.  
  
“Why isn't this door closed? This is supposed to be a safehouse, not a bar!”  
  
Lucy turned around just as Erza Scarlet marched into the warehouse, with a massive and insanely muscular guy and a beautiful white-haired woman just behind her. Mirajane! Oh, wow, she was even prettier in real life! Then Erza glared at everyone and Lucy remembered that she was in big trouble.  
  
“Erza!” said the boy in his underwear. “You're all right!”  
  
“Of course I am,” Erza said shortly. “Where's Natsu?”  
  
The boy in his underwear pulled a face. “What do you want that idiot for?”  
  
“So that he can be punished!” Erza swept her gaze across the room. “He's endangered our-” Her stare stopped on Lucy. Lucy quailed. “Why do we have Lucy Heartfilia?”  
  
“...so she _is_ the Lucy everyone's after?” Cana said. “How do you know?”  
  
“She looks just like she did on the poster!” Mirajane said. “Except not as well-dressed.”  
  
“What?” Lucy said, then looked down at her baggy pants and the shirt that bared her midriff and had to concede that point.  
  
“What poster?” said Cana and the guy in his underwear, simultaneously.  
  
Erza explained, briefly. The job request, how they'd been sent to Oak Town to warn Jose, discovering that Natsu had already tried to kidnap Lucy, escaping the headquarters, the horrific things she was going to do to Natsu as soon as she found him. The boy in his underwear turned green.  
  
“ _What_?” Lucy said. “Do you seriously expect me to buy that one of your mages just independently decided to go kidnap a mage from another guild?” She made an exasperated gesture. “Without being ordered to? He just decided to _waltz_ on over to Oak Town and declare war on Phantom Lord _of his own accord_? Without your master's permission? Without anyone knowing about it?” Obviously they'd just thought their Dragon Slayer would be able to grab her without anyone noticing, which was beyond stupid because he'd attacked her in the middle of a public street, and... the Fairies were all staring at her blankly.  
  
“That's Natsu for you,” Mirajane said.  
  
“Oh my God,” said Lucy. They were all complete idiots.  
  
“Enough,” Erza said. “Where's Master?”  
  
“He's been captured,” Cana said.  
  
Erza's eyes went wide. “What?”  
  
“When they attacked the guild hall, the old man stayed back to give us time to retreat,” said the guy in his underwear. “He didn't come after us. Loke was injured and we left him behind by mistake. We figure they've both been taken.”  
  
Erza raised her fists as if she was going to hit herself in the head. “I never imagined that could happen! I didn't look! Please, would you hit me?”  
  
“Hey- hey, that's not-” said the guy in his underwear.  
  
“Erza, calm down!” Mirajane said. “It's not your fault!” She turned to Lucy. “Please, would you tell us what your master's doing?” Mirajane was clearly terrible at interrogation.  
  
“I don't know!” Lucy said. “He's not even my master any more! I don't-” She stopped dead. Her eyes crossed as she focused on the swordblade pressed to her throat.  
  
“Then tell us everything you _do_ know,” Erza ordered.  
  
Lucy obeyed. How she'd run away from home, joining Phantom Lord, how she and Juvia had been attacked, sending their Dragon Slayer away with Auriga – the guy in his underwear rolled his eyes – going back to Jose, being locked up, escaping - “Go over that part again, that was cool,” said Mickey. - getting to Magnolia and finally being jumped by Mickey and Kageyama. When she finished there was a long moment of silence. The sword against her throat didn't move. Then-  
  
“Oh, _no_!” Mirajane said. “How could he do such a horrible thing to one of his own mages? What an awful man!” There were tears glittering in her eyes. Erza sheathed her sword.  
  
“Do you think he will actually fire the Jupiter Cannon?”  
  
“Erza tried to fly up into the barrel before and block it with the Adamantine Armour, but the magic gathering around it was too much,” Mirajane told everyone.  
  
Lucy goggled. “That's insane!” Erza reached for her sword. “Um. I mean. I'd have thought so.”  
  
“We cannot allow that, and we need to rescue our master and Loke,” Erza said flatly. “Gray, I'm going back to the headquarters to look for them. You're coming with me. Dress yourself first.” She produced a bundle from her requip armoury and held it out to the guy in his underpants. He had been nodding grimly, but now he gaped at her.  
  
“Why do you have some of my clothes?”  
  
“Why would I not carry some of your clothes? You routinely expose yourself in public,” Erza said. “Phantom is likely to search the city for us, correct?” She looked at Lucy, who nodded. She was a little puzzled, and suspicious, that they were acting as if they just _assumed_ she was trustworthy. “They have the advantage in quantity at the moment, but we have the advantage in quality. If we couldn't best them when they attacked us en masse and by surprise, once they're split up and in our home territory, they don't stand a chance.” What? Phantom Lord was the strongest guild in Fiore! Why was Erza Scarlet acting as if they didn't stand a chance? Well, if she wanted to charge in blindly convinced that Fairy Tail was the best, then Lucy was going to let her. She folded her arms tightly across her chest and fumed silently.  
  
“We are going to retrieve our master, our comrade, our town and our pride,” Erza said brusquely. “Starting now. Let's go!”  
  
“Oh! I can help, too!” Mira said.  
  
“Elfman, stay with Mira. Don't let her get into trouble,” Erza ordered.  
  
“Oh,” Mira said. The rest of Fairy Tail moved out. Lucy stood in the middle, watching her captors just... sort of... forget she was there. They weren't going to drag her off and hand her over to Jose? Seriously?  
  
What was _wrong_ with them?  
  
“Hey, Heartfilia! What are you going to do?” Lucy turned around. Mickey was right behind her. “I guess you could go and do all Phantom stuff now, but I wouldn't if I was you.”  
  
“Do you think pushing your guild master out of a window counts as a resignation?” Lucy said. She looked down at her guild mark. She wasn't really a Phantom mage any more. She was a mage with no guild. Wandering. Unaffiliated. What was she supposed to do? “I-” She hesitated. “I need to find Juvia. If I can tell her what's really happened – I'm sure she'll listen to me, but-”  
  
“Oh, right!” Mickey said, and twisted around. “Kage! Hey, Kageyama!” He sauntered over. “You've got Lucy's whip and thing, right? She needs them back, she's gonna go find that friend of hers.”  
  
“What,” said Kageyama.  
  
Mickey repeated herself, but more loudly.  
  
“I heard you the first time, I just,” Kageyama said. “Okay. Fine. Rearming captured enemy, right now.” He offered Lucy back her whip and knuckleduster. She reached out uncertainly and then snatched them from him.  
  
“Great! Come on then!” Mickey said, and headed for the door. Behind her, Lucy and Kageyama looked at each other.  
  
“Are they crazy?” Lucy said. “They are all crazy, right? It's not me?”  
  
“They're all completely mad,” Kageyama agreed. “I like it. Mickey, wait!” He followed after her. That left Lucy alone in the warehouse. She clasped her whip and knuckleduster to her belt, drew in a deep breath, and went to find Juvia.


	13. Fight Scene Montage

It was raining, a dull grey drizzle that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and Alzack and Bisca were hurrying through Magnolia together looking for enemies to fight. Together. It was almost like a date. Both of them realised this simultaneously.  
  
Bisca went pink. Alzack ducked his head.  
  
“Uh... that's a new gun, isn't it?”  
  
Bisca looked down at her new pump-action shotgun. He'd noticed! “Ketterlock Model Seven. Twelve gauge, eight-point-five inch barrel, one-point-five inch lacrima, rust-resistant coating and Pretty in Pink finish. Plus it's a lot easier to field strip than the Model Six.”  
  
“It looks good on you,” Alzack said. There was a moment of silence as they both tried to figure out what that meant.  
  
“Um, thank you,” said Bisca.  
  
“Hullo!” someone called. They both looked ahead. A boy with a round face and tousled green hair was standing in the middle of the street. “Have you seen a goth girl with a staff anywhere around here?”  
  
Was he a Phantom mage? They couldn't see a guild mark on him.  
  
“No,” Alzack said.  
  
“Sorry,” said Bisca.  
  
“You're useless, then,” the boy said, and sighed. He raised both hands, palms down, and two magical circles blossomed into a pair of bone golems. One looked like a Vulcan skeleton, and the other seemed human except for the bone spurs on its arms and the digitigrade feet.  
  
Bisca lifted her shotgun to her shoulder and flicked off the safety catch. “Wide Shot!” The Phantom mage hopped out of the way. The lead shot rattled through the skeletons without damaging them. Bisca switched to her sniper rifle in a blur of green light. “Homing Shot!” It failed. The bone golems didn't have any life signs for the auto-aim to lock on to. Where had the Phantom mage gone? The humanoid skeleton charged her, covering the distance between them with long flying strides. The metallic claws screwed into the ends of its fingers gleamed.  
  
“Bisca! Get down!”  
  
Bisca threw herself flat on her back. The claws scythed over the top of her head. Alzack fired. “Tornado Shot!” The bullets spiralled around each other and spun into a whirlwind that swept the two bone golems off their feet. Bisca watched them tumble over and over down the street.  
  
“Good job, Alzack!”  
  
Behind her, Alzack made a strangled sound. Bisca turned. Behind him was the Phantom mage, one hand pressed against Alzack's back. Bisca raised her rifle. “Alzack, move!” He didn't.  
  
“I use skeleton magic,” the Phantom mage said cheerily. “Guess what this guy has?” Alzack was frozen – mouth open, feet apart, arms half-raised. His revolvers were still in his hands. His eyes were fixed on Bisca. She drew in a deep breath.  
  
“Drop the gun, or I break his arm,” the Phantom mage said. Bisca flicked the safety catch on and carefully set the rifle down on the ground. He hadn't realised she was an exquip user, then, but she still couldn't fire from here without hitting-  
  
There was a crack. Alzack cried out. His left forearm twisted at the wrong angle.  
  
“Alzack!”  
  
“Oops,” said the Phantom mage. “Oh well. He's got two.”  
  
Alzack was white and gasping, but his other arm lifted up until his revolver was levelled at Bisca.  
  
“What do you think?” the Phantom mage asked Alzack, and released whatever grip he had on Alzack's jaw. “Shoot her, or not shoot her?”  
  
“Bisca, run!” Alzack rasped. She had an easy way out; there was an alley between her and the bone golems and she could easily race down it before they reached her, get to a safe distance, take the Phantom mage out with her sniper rifle. But that would mean leaving Alzack.  
  
“I'll take that as a shoot,” the Phantom mage said. Alzack's finger tightened on the trigger. Bisca screamed and flung herself at them. Alzack's gun went off.  
  
The bullet whipped past Bisca's ear and exploded into high-pressurised mud. The Phantom mage swore. Bisca threw herself flat and skidded on the wet pavement, right between their legs. The Phantom mage recoiled away from Alzack. Bisca requipped her pump-action shotgun, cycled a round and fired upwards.  
  
The Phantom mage was blasted off his feet, and the bone golems collapsed with a clatter as their master hit the ground, rolled and lay still. Alzack fell backwards. Bisca flung her shotgun back into her requip armoury and caught him. Alzack made a hurt, breathless noise and twisted his neck to look up at her.  
  
“Are you all right?” Bisca said.  
  
“Why did you do that?” Alzack croaked.  
  
“I like you,” Bisca said.  
  
“But that was insane!”  
  
“I _really_ like you!” Bisca said. Besides, they'd done madder things. Being unstoppably deranged was Fairy Tail's primary tactic in every situation. Why was he making a fuss about it now?She drew a pair of rifle-cleaning rods from her requip armoury and tugged her scarf from her neck. She could splint his arm with those. She just didn't want to hurt -  
  
Alzack wasn't saying anything. Bisca mentally reviewed everything she'd just said.  
  
Oh. Oops.  
  
“Uh-” Quick! Say you misspoke! Say you only really like him in a platonic way! Explain that you don't actually want to marry him and have heavily-armed babies! Sadly, Bisca's entire face had stopped working, or doing anything at all except getting redder and redder.  
  
“Um,” Alzack said.  
  
There was a moment of silence, interrupted by the Phantom mage groaning “Oh God, just shoot me now.”  
  
“Shut up,” Bisca ordered. “You're a bad person. Bad people don't get favours.” She turned back to Alzack. “Is... is that okay?”  
  
“Um. Yeah,” Alzack said. “That... is better than okay, actually. I could... live with that.”  
  
“That's interesting. Because it makes me want to die,” said the Phantom mage.  
  
“Shut up!” Bisca snapped at him. “Um.. so, what do we do now?”  
  
Alzack only hesitated for a moment. “Do you want to... uh... see a movie or something?”  
  
“Yeah,” Bisca said, “but I meant right now.”  
  
“Oh.” Alzack grimaced. “We'll find somewhere high up to shoot from.”  
  
“But your arm!” Bisca said.  
  
“Oh, well,” Alzack rasped. “I've got two.”

* * *

Three Phantom Mages had been sent to guard each of the main roads that led out of Magnolia. The trio watching the western road stood on the roof of a bookshop, huddled together under an umbrella, and scanned the streets for fugitives. Civilians could be used as hostages, and no Fairy could be permitted to escape Master Jose's justice; their job was to prevent anyone from getting away, Fairy or not.  
  
As a result of this, they weren't expecting to be attacked from outside the city.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Roar!”

* * *

“There!” Devin yelled, and shattered the brick behind the Fairy girl's head with a volley of purple darts. She ducked and scampered away, holding her cat-eared hat on with one hand. The pale, insubstantial creatures perched on each shoulder bounced up and down with each step. They'd chased her through a dozen unfamiliar streets and still she'd managed to stay a step ahead with that same puzzled, half-asleep expression on her face. It made Calla want to slap her.  
  
The Fairy girl darted down a side street, heading towards the lake shore, and ducked into a boathouse that looked like an old half-drowned stone barn. Calla and Devin raced around the corner just in time to see the door slam shut behind her.  
  
A few seconds later Calla threw the door open and stalked in. Devin was close behind. Calla scanned the boathouse as Devin found the light switch and flicked it on.. Beyond the flat platform they stood on, steps led down to a walkway with water on either side. All kinds of boats – motor boats, SE-plug boats, punts, rowboats – were locked to their mooring posts on either side. At the far end of the boathouse were two sets of double doors, locked and bolted. Juvia Lockser's interminable rain pattered on the roof.  
  
“Dead end. She's lurking in here somewhere,” Calla said. She glanced quickly over her shoulder, and up to the rafters.  
  
“I hate when the bitches hide,” Devin grumbled.  
  
Calla drew a sheet of paper from her sleeve and headed down the steps with a bored “Yeah, yeah... if you're going to shoot anything in here, do try to make sure it isn't me.”  
  
“Are you ever going to let that go?” he growled.  
  
“When we get kicked back up to First, maybe,” Calla retorted. Her fingers flickered, the paper twisted in her hands, and within a few moments a little origami crow perched on her fingertip. She pointed at a motorboat with a little cabin just big enough for an annoying Fairy to squeeze herself into. “Kamikaze Crow!” The impact shattered the hull just below the lake surface. Water gushed in. The boat listed to one side. Calla waited a moment to see if a panicked fairy scrambled out of the cabin, and the lights went out.  
  
“Devin!”  
  
He hit the light switch again, and cursed. “Nah – certain it's the electrics, not magic, but it's gone. Piece of crap.”  
  
Calla yanked a handful of origami stars from her pocket and flung them up. “Paper Lanterns!” The stars hung in the air, casting a sickly yellow glow over the rows of boats. Calla glanced back over her shoulder. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was just behind her, watching her, a slow prickle down her spine.  
  
Invisibility magic? She spun and brought up a hand, unfurling a handful of paper sheets that spun themselves into tight balls. “Paper Bullets!” The projectiles shot the length of the walkway and cratered the platform Devin was standing on.  
  
“Oi! What was that for?”  
  
“Checking,” Calla said. The only way anyone could have dodged that would have been to jump into the water. She turned away and headed back down the walkway. A sailboat with its sails bundled loosely in the bottom of the boat, a dinghy with a cover, a pink- and orange-striped canoe Calla thought was just ugly; she holed the lot of them and moved on and, slowly, steadily, she reached the far end of the walkway.  
  
Calla stopped with one hand on the wall. She looked back over her shoulder. Devin was a dark still figure leaning against the railing. Where had she missed? Where was – she looked down.  
  
A faint grey light filtered through the dark water. There was a massive gap between the bottom of the locked doors and the bottom of the pool.  
  
Calla swore and spun around. “Devin! She's snuck out into the lake!” Devin wasn't on the platform any more. “Devin? Hey!” Devin wasn't anywhere.  
  
Calla tore back towards the platform. The walkway stretched out impossibly far before her. The darkness at the edges of the boathouse rippled like she was seeing it through a heat haze, but her breath came out as smoke. The air thickened as if she was running through deep water. Her hair drifted around her. Her breath came out in wisps of cloud. “Devin,” she rasped. What the hell kind of magic was this?!  
  
“I don't think he can hear you.” Calla turned around. The Fairy mage was sitting on the edge of the walkway, eyes closed, boots peeled off, dangling her bare feet in the black water. She twiddled a strand of hair around her fingers. “Sorry.”  
  
“Where's Devin? Where did you come from?” Calla demanded. “What the hell is this?”  
  
The Fairy mage opened her big dazed eyes and blinked at Calla. “One of my friends lives here,” she said.  
  
In the dim light of the paper stars, another shadow materialised beside Calla's. Something was standing behind her.  
  
“Maybe _lives_ isn't the right word,” Chico said.

* * *

Team Shadow Gear were heading towards the Phantom headquarters when the earth ruptured under them. Levy and Droy went sprawling on the street. Only Jet managed to stay standing, so when a Phantom mage burst out of the ground it was Jet he wound himself around. He beamed up at Jet, head upside-down, twiddling his moustache. “ _Salut_!” Jet yelled in shock and disgust.  
  
“Jet!” Levy shouted, and a solid-script 'jet' of water smashed into both of them. The Phantom mage bent like a spring, rebounded and disappeared back under the ground. Jet staggered dizzily backwards. “Where did he go?” Levy gasped.  
  
“Levy! Behind you!” Droy shouted. Levy turned.  
  
“ _Bonjour, bonjour –_ bonjour _, ma belle mademoiselle_!” The Phantom mage bowed almost double at the waist. He had green hair that stuck straight up, a monocle and, apparently, no bones. “I am Sol. You may call me Monsieur Sol.” He swung his body back and forth like a pendulum and peered at them through his monocle.  
  
“What a weirdo,” Droy said.  
  
“Don't let your guard down!” Levy warned them. “He's one of Phantom's Element – _Jet_!”  
  
“Falcon Heavenward!” Jet launched himself at Sol, twisting in midair to hit the Element Four mage with a powerful kick.  
  
“How rude!” Sol exclaimed, and vanished under ground before Jet could reach him. Jet crashed to the ground. His hat fell off. Sol popped up again, a little way away, and inquired sardonically, “Whom do I have the honour of addressing?” He tipped himself horizontal and twisted his monocle in his eye socket. “My monocle tells me information pertaining to all the significant mages of Fairy Tail, but you – _hélas_ – of you three I know nothing.”  
  
“We're Team Shadow Gear!” Levy said, astonished.  
  
“ _L'Engrenage Ombragé_?” Sol twiddled his monocle faster. “ _Non, non, non_. My monocle has heard nothing of you.”  
  
“We've been in Fairy Tail for years!” Levy said.  
  
“We've won the twenty-four-hour endurance road race for the last five years in a row!” Jet snapped, retrieving his hat. “Well, I have, but they can share.”  
  
“We broke that curse on Iris Village that was turning everyone into fish!” Levy said.  
  
“Hmmm?” Sol said, and twisted himself nearly upside down. “ _Non_.”  
  
“Don't underestimate us, you bastard!” Droy yelled. “Knuckle Plant!” He flung a handful of seeds at Sol. Before they could take root, Sol swept both hands up like an overenthusiastic orchestra conductor.  
  
“Roche Concerto!” The ground broke apart beneath their feet again. Massive chunks of rock were blasted into the air. Droy was flung away and rolled over and over on the cobbles. Jet whipped Levy off her feet and out of range.  
  
Droy rolled over, snatching a bundle from one of the bandoliers across his chest. “We beat the lindwurm at Lierre Town!”  
  
“Ah? Non!”  
  
Droy flung the bundle at Sol. Seeds showered down around him. “Chain Plant!”  
  
Vines burst up from the ground all around Sol. He threw up his hands in mock dismay - “ _Oh lá lá_! _Non, non, non_!” - and then he vanished under the earth again. The vines fell limply to the ground. Droy scrambled to his feet. “Where's he-” Sol burst out of the ground under his feet and wound around him. “Augh!” Droy tried to pull Sol off, but he was locked tightly around his arm. The Phantom mage stretched but didn't loosen his grip. “Get off me, you creepy bastard!”  
  
“It's terribly ambitious for three nobodies to pit themselves against one of Phantom Lord's Element Four, _n'est-ce pas_?” Sol remarked, entirely ignoring Droy's efforts to dislodge him. “You should avoid attempting what you cannot achieve!”  
  
“Do you want to see what we can achieve?” Jet shouted.  
  
Levy jabbed both hands at Sol, first two fingers extended. “Bees!”  
  
Droy and Sol both looked up in horror. The word in the air broke apart into a buzzing swarm. Sol untangled himself in a hurry, spun in the air and kicked Droy upside the head. Then, as the swarm descended, he dived back into the safety of the earth.  
  
“Levy!” Droy wailed, scrambling away from the swarm.  
  
“I'm not done!” Levy shouted. She cancelled the Bees spell and threw out both arms as wide as she could reach. “Permafrost!” The word appeared in front of her writ huge in ice-rimed earth and fell into the dirt exposed under the broken paving slabs. The groundwater froze solid.  
  
There was a loud thud as the top of Sol's head collided with the layer of frozen soil.  
  
“So clever, Levy!” Jet and Droy cheered, their eyes sparkling.  
  
“Don't let your guard down! We haven't won yet!” Levy ordered.  
  
“Right, Levy!” the two of them chorused, and watched her with big expectant eyes, waiting for her to come up with a plan.  
  
Sol wasn't waiting. He bobbed back up beyond the boundaries of Levy's permafrost. “Platre Sonata!” The exposed earth and plaster from the walls of buildings swirled around and coalesced into a giant fist.  
  
“Guard!” Levy threw her hands out and the word appeared in front of them in gleaming metallic letters. The fist smashed against the barrier. The barrier shattered, but so did the fist. Plaster dust rained down. Levy swiped a hand across her eyes and peered through the settling dust. Sol wasn't there.  
  
“Look out!” Droy shouted, too late.  
  
“Sable Dance!” A whirlwind of sand hit them from the other direction. Levy screwed her eyes shut and covered her head with her arms as the sand spun around her. There was a loud cracking noise underneath them as Sol began to demolish the permafrost. It wouldn't last much longer. Levy pressed both hands against her eyes and thought.  
  
Sol had known exactly where to appear to wrap around Jet and Droy. How? By their feet on the ground?  
  
“Droy!” Levy yelled, lifting her head, and pointed at one of the pubs along this street. “Jump!” Droy took a running jump at it and swung from the bar's hanging sign. “Droy!” she yelled again. He looked down, but she ignored it and swept her hands apart to produce a solid-script Droy; the name balanced atop a pair of legs in green checkered pants and with a hair-stem sprouting from the O. “Jet!” She reached out her arms to him. He snatched her off her feet and tore straight up the wall of a building.  
  
Below, the permafrost broke. Sol exploded out of the ground and wound himself tight around the solid-script Droy. “You see how hopeless it was for you to – sacrebleu!”  
  
Droy took one hand off the bar sign and flung a handful of seeds at Sol. “Chain Plant!” Sol couldn't disentangle himself in time. The vines locked around him and the decoy Droy both. At the very top of the wall, Jet catapulted himself and Levy back into the open air.  
  
“Falcon Heavenward!”  
  
Levy shrieked. Jet twisted as they fell. Sol looked up. His eyes widened. His monocle fell out and dangled at the end of its chain. Jet smashed into Sol boots-first. The binding vines snapped under the impact. Sol crashed into the ground. Jet staggered, with Levy still in his arms, and managed to stay upright.  
  
Sol sprawled on the ground, groaning softly, eyes rolled back in his head. Droy dropped down from the bar sign. The three of them gathered around the fallen Phantom mage.  
  
“We're Team Shadow Gear,” Jet informed him breathlessly.  
  
Levy grinned. “Levy, Jet and Droy!” She linked hands with the two of them.  
  
“So don't forget it!” Droy said.

* * *

Gajeel sniffed the air. Nothing. He went back to where the entrance to the trash's guild hall had been – now a tangle of broken wood and bent girders – and took another deep sniff. Still nothing! Ashley hadn't been there at all! And where the hell was the Salamander? Gajeel was pretty keen on slamming that guy's face into a wall.  
  
He stomped over to that busted-up carrot-top Fairy they'd dragged out of the hall before it went down, and kicked him in the gut. That woke the bastard up in a hurry.  
  
“Where's Ashley?”  
  
“Ashley?” the trash repeated weakly. He counted girls on his fingers. “Amabel, Carmen, Shiori, Sunilda, Ilyse-” He looked over and realised that one of Gajeel's boots was on his other hand.  
  
“What the hell are you doing?” Gajeel growled. “Tell me where Lucy is!”  
  
“I thought you were looking for Ashley,” the asshole said. “Never heard of either of them. Wouldn't tell you if I had.”  
  
Gajeel ground his boot down on the trash's fingers, making him cry out in pain. “Fine. Then where's the Salamander?”  
  
The asshole's eyes bugged out of his head. “What's with your _taste_?” he demanded. “I wouldn't tell you where Natsu was, either!”  
  
“He a friend of yours?” Gajeel said.  
  
“Yes!”  
  
Gajeel kicked the trash in the gut again, to knock the breath out of him, and hauled him to his knees by the back of his jacket. “Let's see if he comes to help you out, then!” He raised his other fist and transformed it into an iron bar, and then the trash hit him in the side of the knee.  
  
“Regulus!” There was a flash of golden light. Gajeel's boot shot out from under him with a shriek of metal studs. For a moment he lurched, off-balance, and then gravity took over. Gajeel fell on his ass. The Fairy sprawled on the ground, gasping.  
  
“Ooooh, bad idea,” Sue said.  
  
Gajeel scrabbled back to his feet, white with fury. “Who the hell do you think you are?” He booted the Fairy in the ribs so hard it lifted him off the ground. The Fairy wheezed, struggled to get up and slumped back down. “Is that all the fight you got, trash?” He parked one massive boot on the Fairy's head and ground down. “Where the hell is Lucy?”  
  
Lucy was barely twenty feet away, peeking around the corner of a side street and wincing.  
  
She knew Juvia had to be in the headquarters, because that was the centre of the steady rain. She was just trying to figure out how to get past Gajeel. She was fairly sure he didn't know she was there, partly because he'd always neglected his magical senses in favour of his sense of smell and the only breeze put her downwind of him, but also because every time he kicked the Fairy he yelled “Tell me where Ashley is!” Master Jose must have told Gajeel what had really happened. Maybe he would have edited out the part where she kicked him in the crotch. Lucy didn't even want to think about what would happen if they caught her.  
  
The Fairy let out a thin, breathless cry of agony. Lucy flinched and turned her head away.  
  
“Loke!” someone shouted.  
  
Lucy looked up. Three Fairy mages were sprinting towards her. Two guys, and a girl with blue hair. She reached for her whip reflexively, but they ran straight by. The blue-haired one definitely saw her, a sideways flick of the eyes as she raced past to help her guildmate that left Lucy feeling... ashamed, somehow. Which was ridiculous, wasn't it? She had to look after herself. She couldn't expect anyone except Juvia to charge in and rescue _her_.  
  
“Fire!” The Fairy girl spun and flung out both hands. The word 'fire' materialised in front of her in blazing foot-high letters, and she blasted it at Gajeel. One of the guys threw a handful of seeds at him.  
  
“Chain Plant!”  
  
Gajeel's skin rippled and turned to steel plating. The fire washed over him and went out. The seeds exploded into vines, roots shattering the paving stones. Gajeel grabbed a handful and yanked them out of the earth.  
  
“Man, why are we even down here?” Bozo said.  
  
“Because Titania and the rest of them escaped and Juvia's lost her mind,” Sue said.  
  
“Oh yeah,” said Bozo. “Hey, wait!” Behind Gajeel the other member of the trio appeared in a blur and grabbed hold of the orange-haired Fairy.

Sue reached out and a glowing green magical seal appeared over their heads. She flipped her hand over. “Kaleidoscope!” A cage of mirrors appeared around the two of them. “I hope you both like looking at your own pathetic faces, because you're going to be in there a while!”  
  
Gajeel transformed one of his arms into an iron bar and took a step forward. The vines snapped and tore free of the ground. “Did you think that'd hold me, trash?” He slammed the iron bar into the plant mage's stomach.  
  
“Droy!” the blue-haired girl shrieked. She was casting another spell when Gajeel grabbed her by her wrists and hauled her off the ground. She kicked out at him. He ignored it.  
  
“Where's Lucy?”  
  
Crap. Lucy turned to run.  
  
“I don't know!” the blunette yelled. “And I wouldn't tell you if I did!”  
  
What?  
  
How could she not have – She was lying? Right to Gajeel's face? She was _lying_?  
  
Gajeel looked her up and down and grinned nastily. “Bet I could convince you, shrimp!” He drew back his fist.  
  
“Gajeel!” Lucy roared. “Put her down!”  
  
Gajeel looked around, startled. “Ashley?” He scowled. “How long've you been running around? I've been looking for you, princess. You been wasting my time?” The blue-haired girl kicked out at him again. He held her further away.  
  
Lucy realised, belatedly, that she was standing in the middle of the street where everyone could see her. That... had not been a good idea. She took a step forward and lifted her chin. “Don't pretend you came here to help me!”  
  
“Who says I did? Figured I'd track you down as a favour to Lockser, is all. It's not like _I_ care,” Gajeel growled, and folded his arms. Since he was still holding the Fairy mage by the wrists, this resulted in her being dragged across the ground and tethered to his side.  
  
“Ow!” The Fairy mage yanked at her wrists. “Let me go!”  
  
“Let her go!” Lucy said.  
  
“Let her go? Okay!” Gajeel yanked the Fairy mage off her feet and flung her away. She hit the ground with a thud. “She's gone! Gihihihi!” The Fairy mage scrambled to her hands and knees and over to the the plant mage's side. “What are you so concerned about trash for?”  
  
“Who should I be concerned about? The guild that tried to kidnap me?” Lucy demanded. “Master Jose was trying to sell me back to my father! He- those are _my keys_!”  
  
Gajeel spun her keyring idly around one finger.  
  
“Give them back! How did you get hold of them?”  
  
“You forgot them in Master Jose's office, idiot,” Gajeel said.  
  
“No, I didn't!”  
  
Gajeel glared at her. “You forgot your keys, you wandered off and you let the Fairy trash jump you.”  
  
“I didn't!” Lucy snapped again.  
  
“We never tried to kidnap her,” the blue-haired girl agreed. “Master would never have approved that!”  
  
“You got a death wish, runt?” Gajeel demanded. “If your old man never approved it, how come your weakass Dragon Slayer tried to grab her in the first place?”  
  
“Natsu does a lot of things Master doesn't approve of!” the blue-haired girl said.  
  
“The only person who kidnapped me was Jose!” Lucy snapped. “He found out my father would pay to have me sent back, and when I didn't agree to trot back home by myself he knocked me out and locked me in the sky cells! I had to tackle him out the window to get away!”  
  
There was a moment of silence. Gajeel scowled again. “What were you doing arguing with Master Jose?”  
  
“What,” Lucy said.  
  
“He's the guild master! If he told you to toddle off home, you should have done it! What did you join up for if you weren't going to follow orders?”  
  
Lucy went red. “I can't believe you're being such a jerk!” She stamped her foot. “What sort of idiot would want to follow orders from someone who'd try to kidnap them? That's not an efficient way of managing a guild!”  
  
“Well, if that's what you think, then get out!” Gajeel snarled. “Phantom doesn't need weaklings who pitch a strop just because they got kidnapped a little! I'll throw you out myself!”  
  
“You can't expel me! I quit!” Lucy yelled, flaring red with anger. “I tackled Jose out a window and kicked him in the nuts! That is my _official resignation_! Screw you, screw Jose, screw your entire stupid guild! - except Juvia and you guys and Ryos,” she added to Sue and Bozo, who were staring blankly.  
  
“...Ta. Appreciated,” said Bozo.  
  
“You'd _better_ not screw Ryos. He's like eight. It'd be wildly inappropriate,” said Sue.  
  
The blue-haired girl was just staring in horror.  
  
Gajeel spluttered. “What are you, stupid? You can't leave! Where else are you gonna go? Get up there and apologise to Master Jose, right now!” He pointed at the headquarters.  
  
He'd been bluffing? “No!” Lucy laughed hysterically. “No way!” Was Juvia going to react like this too? Juvia was just as devoted to Phantom as Gajeel was!  
  
Gajeel's face twisted into a snarl. “Fine! Fuck off, then! Phantom Lord's the strongest guild in the country!” His arm transformed into an iron bar. Lucy took a step back. “We don't need you!” He lashed out.  
  
Lucy dropped to the ground and the blow smashed into the wall above her head. Bricks shattered. Dust showered down. Lucy looked up. It would have missed by a mile even if she hadn't ducked. Gajeel yanked his arm back, and Lucy's keys fell jangling into her lap.  
  
She stared at them. That couldn't be an accident, could it? He'd given her back her keys?  
  
“Get out of here if you're that pathetic, then!” Gajeel spat. “Run and hide behind Lockser!” He jerked a thumb at the headquarters.  
  
Lucy blinked at him.  
  
“The teleporter link's behind that leg there. Bet you didn't know that, idiot,” Gajeel sneered. “Well? Go! Get out of my sight!”  
  
He was giving her back her keys and ordering her to go find Juvia? Was he trying to send her into a trap?  
  
Lucy discounted that theory immediately. Gajeel was not that smart. But then, why-?  
  
She remembered Gajeel standing on the roof, on her first mission, and greeting her after that disastrous job with Lee Annur and Rossa - “Want me to punch it out for you?” Realisation dawned.  
  
Gajeel was her friend. He had been her friend this whole time.  
  
Holy _shit_ Gajeel was bad at being friends.  
  
“What the hell are you doing?” someone roared. Lucy looked up, startled. Gajeel turned around with a scowl. It was Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer, furious, all teeth and fire.  
  
“Natsu!” the blue-haired girl exclaimed.  
  
“Isn't she your friend? Aren't you people from the same guild?” the Dragon Slayer demanded. “Is that how your guild works?”  
  
Gajeel fixed the other Dragon Slayer with a menacing stare, which was completely wasted because the pink idiot just shouted, charged across the square and punched Gajeel in the face. Gajeel hit the ground so hard it cratered. Cracks radiated out across the paving stones in all directions. He clambered back to his feet, snarling.  
  
“We need to get out of here!” the blue-haired girl said, trying to haul her plant mage teammate to his feet. “Droy, come on!”  
  
Lucy decided to take the Fairy girl's advice and scrambled up. “Gajeel!” she hollered. “Kick his ass!”  
  
“What the hell did you think I was gonna do, princess?” he yelled back. “Push off and quit distracting me!”  
  
Lucy raced for the closest leg of the headquarters and saw to her surprise that Sue had released the other two Fairies from the mirror cage. The ginger one in the silly hat grabbed the ginger one not in a silly hat and got out of there in a hurry, just as a blast of flame scorched the ground where they had been standing.  
  
“Fire can't hurt steel, Salamander!” Gajeel shouted, and lifted both hands to his mouth. “Iron Dragon's Roar!”  
  
Sue yanked Lucy back behind the leg of the headquarters. “Get down, idiot!” A tornado of flying metal shards burst out of Gajeel's mouth. Shrapnel gouged holes in the paving stones.  
  
“Flame Dragon's Roar!” The other Dragon Slayer countered with his own breath attack. A blast of fire smashed into the whirlwind of steel. The superheated air blew it apart. The rain  
  
“Dragon fire isn't ordinary fire!” he yelled. “You'd better take me seriously, or I'll turn you to ashes!”  
  
Lucy and Sue huddled close together. “He's got metal shards sticking right out of him. That's insane,” Bozo said. He was peering around the edge.  
  
“If you get shrapnel to the face I won't bother to visit you in the hospital,” Sue told him.  
  
“Why'd you let the Fairies out?” Lucy asked breathlessly.  
  
“With two of them still locked up, the other two have a reason to stick around. Once I let them out, all four of them shoved off,” Sue said. “And they're more limited if they have to look after two injured people instead of just leaving them locked up in a giant disco ball, so the next Phantoms they run into can take them out. Besides, it'd be a waste of my energy trying to maintain it with those two thrashing around out there.”  
  
“Oh, right,” Lucy said.  
  
“It's a pity you've defected, anyway,” Sue said shortly, “because otherwise I would totally tell you that Juvia's staged a mutiny.”  
  
“What?” Lucy said, aghast. Juvia? Calm, professional, ice-cold Juvia?  
  
“What do you mean, what? Obviously I can't just casually inform deserters that Juvia's completely flipped and beaten the tar out of the guys trying to fire Jupiter and trashed their control room and so far managed to evade Master Jose completely and someone should probably smack some sense into her,” Sue said, and raked her hands through her short hair. “I could probably have told you that that's the warp activator up there, too. Man, just look at all that delicious info I could have given you if only you weren't a filthy traitor.”  
  
“Okay,” Lucy said. “Thanks for... not giving me useful information.”  
  
“Don't mention it. Seriously, never mention it,” Sue said.  
  
Lucy stood on tiptoe. Over Sue's head, set into the twisted metalwork of the headquarters' leg, was a lacrima with a diagram next to it of a stick figure and an arrow pointing upwards. Lucy pressed her fingertips against it. Her guild mark tingled. There was one deeply unpleasant moment where she felt as if she was being stretched out like toffee, and then she was back in the hallways of the headquarters.  
  
She was also completely surrounded.


	14. Inside the Headquarters

Lucy had just warped in to the Phantom headquarters and found herself totally surrounded by more than a dozen Phantom mages. They all looked up when she appeared on the plinth in the centre of the room, but before they had been sitting gloomily against the walls with their heads down or peeking out at the door. Were they hiding from something?  
  
Lucy didn't recognise any of them. Were they from the third subdivision? Or were they the reinforcements that were supposed to show up?  
  
“...Password,” said one of the men by the door.  
  
“What?” Lucy said. Password? To prove she wasn't a Fairy in disguise? What would that be, 'Phantom Lord is the best?' She had no idea!  
  
So instead she lifted her chin and fixed him with withering contempt. “What do you mean, password? I've never seen you before. What division are you?”  
  
“...third,” he admitted.  
  
Thank God for that. Subdivisioners she could intimidate. “I'm Lucy Ashley, first division. So I wasn't around for the password lecture, big deal – I'm not going to be chided about it by subdivision trash,” Lucy sneered. “Let me through.”  
  
He hesitated.  
  
Lucy spun her keys in her hand and snapped them onto her belt. “Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum, Sword Form!” Caelum settled into her hands. Lucy swung it onto her shoulder. “You got a death wish, trash?”  
  
The subdivisioner pulled the door open. “Fine. Go out there if you want to.”  
  
Lucy jumped down from the platform. “That's more like it! Trash should know how to follow orders.” She sauntered out of the door, wary for an attack from behind, but they let her go. The door slammed shut behind her.  
  
Lucy headed down the corridor. It was very empty. And quiet. Maybe because Juvia was running riot? Lucy still couldn't really believe that Juvia would do something so extreme, though. Where would Juvia be? If Lucy had gone rogue and started destroying cannons, where would she be?  
  
Well, that was easy. Lucy would be hiding.  
  
The shadows shifted on the floor ahead of her.  
  
Lucy tipped her head back. Ghostly figures were seeping out of the walls overhead. They were empty cloaks with long twig-skinny arms and twin burning red lights for eyes. Jose's Shades.  
  
Lucy ran, screaming. “Juviaaaa!” 

* * * 

Erza and Gray dived in through an open window on the ground floor. Erza rolled and came back to her feet. She was requipping out of the Black Wing Armour and into the Heaven's Wheel Armour as she did, ready to face a hundred enemies. Gray leapt to his feet. There were no Phantom mages in the hallway.  
  
“Which way is it to the cells?” Gray asked.  
  
Erza thought about the window that she, Mira and Elfman had escaped through, and pointed. “The stairs are that way.” She was pointing directly into the wall. She requipped her double-bladed axe again.  
  
“Erza,” Gray said.  
  
Erza swung the axe. The blade bit deep into the wall, shearing through plaster into the brick. “It'll be quickest to go in a straight line.”  
  
“Erza!” Gray said. “Ice-Make: Lance!”  
  
Erza whirled round. Almost a solid mass of ghostly cloaked soldiers were bearing down on them, too many to count. Gray's spears of ice tore through the tight-packed first line. Erza traded her axe for a dozen swords. “Blumenblatt!” She slashed through the horde of Shades with the twin swords in her hands, and as she broke through their ranks the other swords followed her. The storm of blades slashed the wraiths to ribbons of tattered cloth. Erza straightened up and looked over her shoulder, and then her eyes widened as the phantasms swirled and reformed.  
  
“What the hell?” Gray demanded. “Ice Geyser!” A mountain of ice erupted from the floor, impaling the Shades on frozen spikes. They slipped away from it, and the gaping holes sealed over.  
  
“This is Jose's Shade magic!” Erza said. “He can create wraiths to do his fighting for him.”  
  
“Wraiths.. so they're invulnerable?”  
  
Erza's mouth set into a grim line. “We can destroy them if we hit them hard enough!” She raised her twin swords above her head and swung them down with enough force to shatter a skull. “Circle Sword!”  
  
Gray threw himself flat to avoid the swords flying over his head. The guy who had been trying to sneak up behind them had to dive flat, too.  
  
“Yow!”  
  
Erza and Gray looked back as the flying swords shredded the wraiths. The Phantom mage on the floor behind them got hurriedly to his feet, brushed dust from his orange gi and pretended that he had meant to be on the floor, he had seen something interesting down there which merited closer inspection.  
  
“You two are Fairy Tail mages, yes?”  
  
“We are,” Erza confirmed. “Who are you?”  
  
The Phantom mage didn't answer. “Are you trying to rescue your master? I can't allow that.”  
  
“We didn't plan on anyone allowing us,” Gray said, and thrust out both hands, palms outward. “Ice-Make: Lance!” A dozen ice lances erupted from his hands and shot towards the Phantom mage.  
  
“Yellow Fire!” An arc of flames blossomed in front of the Phantom mage and engulfed the ice lances. Steam billowed up. “I am Totomaru of the Element Four, Phantom Lord's fire master. If you're just an ice mage, you shouldn't even try.” He looked past Gray. “I'd be interested in sparring with you, Titania.”  
  
“...Erza, I'm taking this guy,” Gray said. “You go get the old man.” Erza nodded.  
  
“Have you failed to understand me somehow? An ice mage is at a disadvantage against a fire mage,” Totomaru spelt out.  
  
“I've beaten better fire mages,” Gray sneered.  
  
Totomaru drew his sword as Erza passed him. “Hey!” Erza casually knocked his blade aside with an armoured hand and set off down the corridor at a run. The wraiths swirled and chased after her. Totomaru made to follow.  
  
“I'm your opponent!” Gray shouted. “Ice-Make: Sword!” 

* * * 

“One, two...” Mira leant out a little further around the corner. “Three.” She and Elfman were trying to take out the Phantom mages guarding the south road, so that the civilians would be able to get out if they had to.  
  
Well, mainly Elfman. Mira couldn't do anything to help.  
  
“Men don't care about their enemies' numbers,” Elfman growled. “I'll defeat them alone!”  
  
Mira smiled and opened her mouth to agree.  
  
“Oh, hubris! The greatest of all sins! How can tragedy not follow close behind?”  
  
“...that wasn't me!” Mira said, startled. They both spun around.  
  
Aria extended one hand, palm towards them. “Zetsu!”  
  
Elfman shoved Mira out of the way and took the brunt of the attack. The barrage of exploding air pockets flung him back across the street, and he landed with a crash that made the ground shake. The three Phantom grunts on the roof looked down in surprise. Elfman growled and clambered to his feet.  
  
“Are you not the Strauss siblings, Elfman the Beast and Demon Mirajane?” Aria rumbled. He spread his hands out wide. “I am Aria, greatest of the Element Four. I have come to slay monsters.”  
  
“Elfman's not a monster!” Mira shouted, at the same moment that Elfman yelled “A man doesn't care who his opponent is! Beast Arm: Black Bull!” His right arm turned black and bulked up. When he clenched his fist his massive tendons stood out like iron cables.  
  
Aria lifted one hand. “Zetsu!”  
  
Elfman was blasted back off his feet and into the ground again.  
  
“Elfman!” Mira shouted, both hands over her mouth.  
  
“How sorrowful, that the two of you should both be handing over your lives to me!” Aria wailed.  
  
Elfman scrambled back to his feet and roared “Don't get cocky!” He charged Aria and, right as Elfman's fist ploughed towards his face, Aria dissolved into mist. Elfman skidded to a stop and looked around wildly. “Where'd he go?”  
  
Behind him, the air distorted. “Elfman!” Mira screamed, and Aria materialised behind him.  
  
“This is over for you, Beast Arm Elfman! This is the same pain your master felt – Metsu!”  
  
Elfman howled and doubled over. Golden light blazed up around him. “No! Stop it!” Mira shrieked, tears flooding down her cheeks. “Stop!” Elfman fell to the ground. The light died. His right arm shimmered and turned back to normal.  
  
“Oh, the tragedy!” Aria lamented. “Will your sister have to see another little sibling stolen away before her very eyes?”  
  
“No! Please, don't!” Mira screamed.  
  
Aria extended one hand. “In such a weakened state, what can any man do but die? Zetsu!”  
  
Die?  
  
Mira's breath stopped in her throat. Die? She saw Lisanna's frail broken body, heard her last laboured gasps. Mira couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak, her hands hung limply at her sides but still she screamed, and in answer her magic burst free.  
  
Aria turned. “What-”  
  
Mira's magic gutted Aria's spell, a fragile thing, all delicacy and woven air; it shattered the stones beneath her feet; it tore at her hair and skirts. She burned like a supernova. Cracks crazed across her face. Her dress disintegrated. Her hands turned to razor-edged claws.  
  
Aria smiled, and reached up to his blindfold. “If the Demon Mirajane has decided to take this seriously, then I will have to return the favour-” He was halfway through removing the blindfold when Mirajane punched him in the face. Aria was sent flying. He skidded in the mud. The blindfold fell from his hand. He threw out both hands towards her.  
  
“Zetsu!”  
  
Mirajane howled and tore at her hair, back arching. Wings erupted from her shoulderblades and catapulted her into the sky. The barrage exploded underneath her.  
  
Mirajane brought both hands togetther, and a dark energy began to collect between them. “I am going to destroy you,” she said. It was almost casual, a statement of fact, as if she had already watched the battle play out.  
  
“Oh, hubris,” Aria said. He opened his eyes. They glowed faintly. “How tragic, this rot that sets into the hearts of great mages, so that they sicken from within.” He climbed to his feet. “There is always someone better than you, little demon. Zetsu!”  
  
Mirajane rolled to one side, wings a blur, wheeling and sliding between the lethal airspaces like a dancer. The spell in her hands was done charging. “Demon Blast!” With an earsplitting roar, the beam of concentrated magic tore up the street and ploughed a deep channel in the earth. The rain hissed into steam. Aria dissolved into air as he saw the beam racing towards him, and reformed when it had passed, but it took him a few seconds to reassemble his body completely. In those few seconds, Mira slammed both her high-heeled boots into his face.  
  
“Agh! Hitofuki!” There was no finesse to that spell, just brute force, an expanding airspace that hurled Mirajane back. She hit the ground, bounced, twisted like a cat in midair and landed on her feet.  
  
What kind of monster -  
  
Aria whipped up a whirlwind around himself. The air blackened as if it were filled with smoke. “This is the airspace of death, Zero! This airspace will steal the very breath from your lungs!” Mirajane retreated by a couple of great jumps, wings beating. He laughed. “Come at me, Demon Mirajane! Shall we see which of us is stronger?”  
  
Mirajane snatched a street lamp that was listing at a crazy angle from the shattered earth. Aria was a tall, broad shadow within the darkness of the Zero airspace. Easy target. She screamed and flung the street lamp at him like a spear.  
  
It lanced through the tangled winds and smashed into Aria. It hurled him backwards. The airspace of death broke apart. Mira didn't waste a second. She rushed in close as Aria reeled. Dark energy was already gathering between her hands, sucking in air and magic, as black as a hole cut out of the world. She shoved both hands under his chin. “Soul Extinction!”  
  
Soul Extinction was a spell designed to strike enemies fifty feet or more away. At point-blank range, it blasted Aria into the sky.  
  
Mirajane didn't look to see where he fell, or to watch the blast of purple magic dissipate. She ran back to Elfman, her Take-Over fading as she did, and when she dropped to her knees beside him her long skirts pooled all around her. Her magic settled just beneath her skin, as if it had never gone away.  
  
“Elfman! Elfman, are you all right?”  
  
“Mira-nee?” Elfman clasped her hand. “I'm so glad – you're back to how you're supposed to be-” He closed his eyes. “I'm sorry-”  
  
“What? There's nothing you should be sorry for!” Mira said.  
  
“I wasn't strong enough to protect you,” Elfman said.  
  
“That doesn't matter!” Mira said. “There are a lot of things more important than being the strongest.” She knew that even at her best there were a lot of mages that were stronger than her. Erza, Laxus, the master, probably Mystogan and definitely Gildarts, to start with.  
  
Aria just wasn't one of them.

* * * 

Lucy caught sight of what she'd been looking for. “Caelum! Cannon Form!” The spirit changed form. Lucy clutched the awkward shape to her chest. “Charge!”  
  
This was a narrow corridor, narrow enough that Lucy could have touched both walls with her arms outstretched, jammed in around the dining halls and the other massive rooms that took up most of the ground floor. Lucy tore down it and spun at the far end, as the Shades streamed after her, close-packed in the narrow hallway. “Fire!”  
  
Caelum's energy blast carved a hole clear through the mass of Shades to the other side. Lucy staggered from the recoil.  
  
“Great! Good job, Caelum!” Lucy still wasn't sure if Caelum was sentient enough to appreciate being thanked, but it didn't hurt.  
  
And then the hole began to close over. The Shades' cloaks spun themselves back together. Lucy's elated smile faded. The Shades swirled and came after her again.  
  
Lucy wailed and ran. “This isn't fair! Juviaaa! Where are you?” She sprinted down a hallway and crashed into the door at the far end. It burst open. Lucy tumbled through and landed on the floor.  
  
“Ashley? The hell?”  
  
Lucy looked up. A staff, a full black skirt, white blouse, a mane of dyed black hair, and a firebreathing demon leopard.  
  
“Lee Annur?” Lucy scrambled to her feet.  
  
Lee Annur sniffed irritably and slung her staff across her shoulders. “Have you seen Rossa?”  
  
“No. Sorry,” Lucy said. Lee Annur scowled. Lucy looked around quickly. This was the first-division dining hall; she could tell from the decorative wall panelling and because the Phantom Lord banners hanging from the roof beams looked new, even if some of them were on fire. Lee Annur had obviously been fighting. A set of stairs led up to a balcony. Shades wheeled around the ceiling, and more were flooding in. They weren't attacking, though.  
  
“What's going on?”  
  
Lee Annur was looking up, too. “Well, the reinforcements aren't coming, for starters. Can't even reach them,” she said. “Cowards. The master'll punish them for that, later. Weren't you kidnapped at some point?”  
  
“Yeah,” Lucy said, because Sue had probably told her everything. She glanced up at the wheeling Shades again. “But I escaped! I'm not a Fairy in disguise or anything!”  
  
“I know it's you, Ashley, you're making that annoying noise you make,” Lee Annur said.  
  
“Hey!”  
  
Lee Annur rolled her eyes. Lucy decided she was just being difficult. “I mean with them!” Lucy pointed up at the Shades. Why aren't they attacking?”  
  
Lee Annur looked up. “I guess they figure we'll fight it out,” she said. “Why waste magic taking you out when I can do it?”  
  
...that was just an example, right?  
  
Lee Annur unshouldered her staff. “Eh. I've been wanting to kick your ass for a while.”  
  
Oh crap.  
  
Lucy held Caelum tight to her chest. Its cannon began to charge. “I... I don't really think that's necessary, I just want to-”  
  
“Flauros! Go!”  
  
As Flauros leapt, Caelum fired. It missed. The bolt of green energy shot past Flauros's left ear and singed the end of its tail. The recoil tore Caelum out of Lucy's hands, flung her backwards and sent her skidding across the floor, away from Flauros and Lee Annur. When Caelum hit the floor, it melted away back to the stellar spirit world. Flauros charged at Lucy, mouth open. Lucy yanked her keys from her belt.  
  
“Open, Gate of the-”  
  
Oh crap. Crap. That wasn't Taurus's key.  
  
But there wasn't time to reach for it. “-Great Bear! Ursa Major!”  
  
Flauros leapt. Lucy screamed. Ursa Major materialised between them, a solid wall of muscle and fur, and slapped Flauros to the ground. Flames spewed out of its mouth. Ursa Major swung her head away and scowled as Flauros bounced back to its feet.  
  
“Ashley. Sweetness. Baby girl,” Ursa Major said. “Why in the everloving fuck are you bothering me? I got better things to do than smack a cat around for your amusement, you creepy pet abuser.”  
  
Lucy scrambled back. “It was an accident! I was trying to grab Taurus's key! And it's not a cat, it's a firebreathing demon leopard!”  
  
“Leopards are a type of cat, Ashley,” Lee Annur said. Flauros circled them, just out of Ursa Major's reach.  
  
“Oh, hey, right,” Ursa Major said, “because I'm a giant bear and he's a lech in a skirt? Easy mistake to make, if you're blind, and dumb, and the mass that was meant to be in your brain ended up in your top.”  
  
“What? Hey!” Lucy had been just about to call out Taurus and send Ursa Major back, but instead she brandished her keys at the giant bear. “What's that supposed to mean?”  
  
“Babe, you look like two watermelons taped to a stick. You need to get yourself some cake, stat.”  
  
“This is amazing,” Lee Annur said.  
  
“Shut up!” Lucy snapped. “Both of you! I am having a very stressful day today and I am not in the mood!”  
  
“You think you're having a bad time? I was halfway through my dinner when suddenly this meebling blonde piece I'm not even contracted to demands I show up to participate in her rampant animal abuse,” said Ursa Major. “Girl, you are broken in the head. After you get cake, you should get some therapy.”  
  
“I am not! This is serious!” Lucy said. “My guild master kidnapped me! I had to kick him in the crotch and jump out of a window to escape!”  
  
“...Uh,” said Ursa Major. “Huh?”  
  
“Also, Fairy Tail, they tried too,” Lucy said. “But it's my dad who's trying to kidnap me really.”  
  
“Is this all simultaneous?” Ursa Major said. “Are you in a scavenger hunt? As an item?”  
  
“No, listen, I can explain,” Lucy said. “I ran away from home a year ago, because after my mother died my father turned into a total jerk, and then he hired Fairy Tail to kidnap me for him, but their most ridiculous mage came to do it so we kicked his ass and told Master Jose what happened, and then he decided to sell me back to my father himself, and I had to jump out of a window to get away from him! And now he's trying to kill me with a giant robot, which I think is a massive overreaction!” After that she had to stop to breathe.  
  
Lee Annur and Ursa Major both blinked at her. Lucy glared back at them.  
  
“Oh, waaaah,” said Lee Annur. “What were you expecting? Telling Master Jose he could swap you for money? How thick are you?”  
  
At the same moment, Ursa Major said “You poor thing!”  
  
“Uh. What?” said Lucy.  
  
“Sit your ass down, Ashley, I'll deal with this,” Ursa Major ordered, and spun around. “Get over here, you furry douchebag! I'm gonna bite your tail off and floss with it!”  
  
She took off after Flauros with considerable speed considering she must weigh a ton. Lee Annur skittered away and Flauros dived under one of the heavy oak dining tables. Ursa Major thumped both heavy paws down on the table's edge. It skidded back a few feet. Flauros shot out from under the table and, before Ursa Major could smack it back down, clawed its way onto her back. Ursa Major roared and reared up. Flauros hung on and sunk its teeth into her shoulder. Smoke hissed between its jaws. Ursa Major bellowed, reared up and fell backwards. She and Flauros both crashed to the floor.  
  
Flauros yowled and kicked and spat sparks. Ursa Major's fur caught and smouldered, sending up the acrid stink of burning hair. She rolled aside, snarling, and smothered the tiny flicker of flame against the floor. Flauros scrambled up and limped back towards Lee Annur as fast as it could. It was dragging one of its hind legs behind it. Lee Annur swiped her staff at Flauros's head.  
  
“What are you hopping around for? Get back out there!” Before Flauros could obey, though, a yell rang out from upstairs.  
  
“Ice-Make: Chandelier!”  
  
Lucy, Lee Annur, Flauros and Ursa Major all looked up. A great shimmering chandelier of ice crystals appeared hanging from the roof beams, and Fairy Tail's underpants mage – fully dressed just at the moment - leapt for it from the railing of the balcony. He caught the very edge and swung out over the dining hall with a clashing and jangling of icicles on icicles.  
  
Totomaru leapt up onto the railing after him. “Yellow Fire!” He blasted flames at the base of the chandelier. It crashed to the ground, but the underpants mage had already thrown himself clear. Totomaru jumped from the railing to the banister of the stairs and slid down it, still upright, sword pointed ahead of him. At the bottom he leapt off and somersaulted in midair.  
  
The underpants mage clapped his hands together “Ice-Make: Twin Cutlasses!” Two frozen swords with wickedly curved blades appeared. The underpants mage caught one in his right hand and hurriedly put the other between his teeth.  
  
“You look ridiculous!” Totomaru shouted, and closed with him.  
  
“Ooo ook ridikuwus!” the underpants mage retorted.  
  
Swords clanging wildly, they fought across the dining hall. As they reached the first of the long tables, Totomaru leapt up onto it.  
  
“It's over, Fullbuster! I have the higher ground!”  
  
The underpants mage bit through the ice cutlass between his teeth. “You underestimate my power!” He leapt onto the tabletop after Totomaru. They battled dramatically down the length of the table.  
  
“Avast, villain!” the underpants mage shouted.  
  
“'Avast'? That's what pirates say, dumbass! You mean 'avaunt'!”  
  
“I said what I meant!” The underpants mage flung off his jacket and shirt. Not to be outdone, Totomaru yanked off his own jacket. Since he had to untie his belt first, it took a little longer. Belt, jacket, skintight fishnet shirt- “Ow – fuck, where's the zip-” Totomaru stabbed his katana into the table and wriggled around.  
  
The underpants mage waited coolly. Finally Totomaru managed to tug his shirt over his head and fling it aside. “Ha!” He hurriedly fixed his hair, retrieved his sword and lunged at the underpants mage, who parried the blow. The ice sword broke.  
  
“Ice is no match for steel, fool!”  
  
“I can make more swords!” the underpants mage shouted. He leapt back and brought both hands together, and then up as if he were shooting an imaginary bow. “Ice-Make: Sword Bazooka!” Ice whirled and coalesced into a massive cannon balanced on his shoulder. “Fire!” A fusillade of ice swords exploded from the barrel of the cannon. Totomaru blurred to one side and rolled under the table as the volley of swords pierced deep into the wood. The recoil threw the underpants mage back off his feet. Totomaru burst out from cover and closed the distance between them, swinging a two-handed overhead blow down at the underpants mage's head.  
  
The underpants mage blocked it with the ice cannon and leapt back off the table. Totomaru followed him, and they fought out of the door and into the corridor outside. The sound of blades clanging together dramatically grew fainter in the distance.  
  
Ursa Major was still sprawled on the floor. “What was I doing?” she said out loud, and looked around. “Oh, yeah! Violence!” She clambered up. “Come on, pussycat!”  
  
Flauros hopped frantically away from Ursa Major.  
  
Lee Annur exhaled angrily and swung her staff down. “Marchosias! Arise!” The wolf-demon appeared with a flash of light and a puff of sulphur, and stretched its wings. It glanced at Flauros, jerked its head to one side and then made a beeline for the stairs. Flauros fell back, and as it did its lower jaw seemed to unhinge entirely until its mouth was open wide enough to swallow Lucy's head. Flames flickered at the back of its throat. Marchosias reached the balcony overhead and bounded up onto the railing. A two-pronged attack? If Ursa Major went for Flauros, Marchosias would attack from above, and if she tried to go after Marchosias then Flauros would probably fireblast the stairs out from under her. Marchosias was apparently a lot better at tactics than its summoner was.  
  
Ursa Major shifted her weight, glancing between the two opponents.  
  
Wait. There weren't only two opponents, were there? Lee Annur was standing well back, behind both her demons.  
  
“Ursa Major!” Lucy yelled, and pointed. Flauros skittered back to get between them and Lee Annur. Lucy ran forward and leapt onto Ursa Major's shoulders. Ursa Major reared up. Lucy was flung straight into Lee Annur.  
  
And Lee Annur really wasn't a fighter, because as they both crashed to the ground she let go of her staff. As Lucy drew her fist back Lee Annur yowled and grabbed at her wrist, so Lucy headbutted her instead.  
  
“Spirits-” whack! “- aren't-” whack! “- shields!” Whack! Lee Annur fell back onto the floor. The two demons vanished with pops and puffs of sulphur-smelling smoke.  
  
Lucy rolled off her. “That was great, Ursa Major - owww!” She pressed both hands to her head. “How is her skull so thick?” She climbed to her feet. “Is my forehead all red?”  
  
“Yeah. It looks stupid. Put a plaster on it,” Ursa Major ordered. “You wrecked my plan, twerp. I was gonna beat one of them to bits with the other one and it was gonna be super badass.”  
  
"Thanks for helping, anyway," Lucy said. "Do you - uh-" What was the polite way to ask? She'd never had to before. "Do you want to make a contract now?"  
  
“Nope,” said Ursa Major. “Are you crazy? Have you got spaghetti for a brain? I only just got out of the last one.”  
  
“Oh,” Lucy said. She pulled Ursa Major's key from the ring and held it out. “Do you want to take this, then?”  
  
“Uh... I'll think about it,” Ursa Major said. “You hang onto it for now. Temporarily. I don't want to have to carry it around. I guess if you summon me again and I feel like it I might help you out. Only if I feel like it, though.”  
  
“I see,” Lucy said.  
  
“Lucy?”  
  
Lucy whirled around. “Juvia!” She clapped both hands to her mouth. Juvia looked awful! Her hat was gone and her hair was dishevelled. There were rips in her coat that she hadn't bothered to mend.  
  
It occurred to Lucy that this was not the best moment to be standing over an unconscious Phantom mage. She backed away, hands raised. “Um, I need to tell you something, and I'd really like it if you didn't get mad-”  
  
Juvia wailed and clutched at her hair.  
  
“Uh. Juvia?”  
  
Juvia swept one hand across in front of her. “Water Slicer!”


	15. Chapter 15

Juvia swept one hand across in front of her. “Water Slicer!”  
  
Lucy screamed, and Ursa Major threw herself between her and Juvia. The water arc slashed through thick fur into flesh. Ursa Major staggered, groaning, and then the other two hit. Ursa Major staggered sideways, and faded into starlight before she hit the ground.  
  
“Ursa Major!” Lucy shrieked. “Juvia, what are you doing? Let me explain!”  
  
“Lucy lied to Juvia!” Juvia wailed. “Juvia will never forgive Lucy!”  
  
“Lie... what? Juvia, I haven't lied to you!” Lucy grabbed for her keys. “Open, Gate of the-”  
  
“Water Cane!” The water whip lashed across Lucy's back. It knocked the air out of her lungs and threw her to the ground. She flung out her hands to catch herself. The impact jarred up to her shoulders. Her keys bit into her hands.  
  
“Juvia, stop!” She scrabbled backwards. “Why are you-”  
  
“Lucy is a liar!” Juvia screamed, at the top of her voice, loud enough that it must have torn at the inside of her throat. “Master Jose told Juvia that Lucy has been working for Fairy Tail all along!”  
  
“Juvia, that's not true! That doesn't even make any _sense_!” Lucy shouted. She struggled to her knees and hung onto one of the benches bolted to the floor. “Jose tried to kidnap me! He locked me up and told everyone the Fairies did it!”  
  
“Traitor!” Juvia screamed. “Double Wave!” Twin waves exploded from the floor on either side of Lucy. Water roared in her ears and the current dragged her off the ground. Her hair streamed out around her. Lucy clung desperately to the bench. Her lungs were bursting by the time the wave subsided. She lay across the bench, wheezing helplessly. Her thoughts whirled. What could she even do? She didn't want to hurt Juvia, and she couldn't if she tried. None of her spirits would be able to damage Juvia. She was made of water.  
  
Water... Lucy's fist closed around her ice knuckleduster. Juvia had smashed into the walls to get at the pipes, and now she stood calf-deep in churning water, the same water Lucy was drenched in. If Lucy tried hard enough, even from here she might be able to - She lifted her head. The Shades wheeled high above like vultures.  
  
Lee Annur's unconscious body was lying across one of the tables, one hand hanging down. Juvia had tossed her on to there so she wouldn't drown.  
  
Lucy struggled to her feet. There had to be something better she could do.  
  
“J-Juvia, please! I thought we were friends!”  
  
Juvia's eyes went huge. White showed all around her irises. She screamed as if she were being ripped apart. “Lucy lied to Juvia! Lucy made Juvia think Lucy was her friend!”  
  
“Juvia!” Lucy lurched forward into the table. “I am your friend! Why would I not be your friend?”  
  
Juvia wailed and clutched at her hair. “Nobody else has wanted to be Juvia's friend!”  
  
“That's not tr-” Lucy started reflexively, and stopped.  
  
She'd never realised. She was so sorry.  
  
“Juvia does not need friends!” Juvia screamed. “Juvia does not need Lucy! Juvia is a mage of Phantom Lord, she will not be lied to!” She slashed her hand down. “Water Cane!”  
  
The blow flung Lucy back into the water. Her knuckleduster flew out of her hand. Lucy wheezed and spluttered. “Juvia! Stop!” She dragged herself to her feet.  
  
Juvia brought both her hands together. The water began to spin in two columns, gearing up for a Water Nebula that would splatter Lucy over the far wall.  
  
“Master Jose's the only one lying to you!” Lucy yelled. “The Fairies aren't going to send people to infiltrate other guilds! They are _not that smart_!”  
  
Juvia hesitated. The spinning water columns drooped. Lucy staggered forward, lurched and fell into Juvia. She wrapped her arms around Juvia's waist.  
  
“Juvia, listen to me! I'm your friend because you're kind and warm and usually not crazy! You're the nicest person in this guild! And if no-one else realised that then screw them because they didn't deserve you anyway!”  
  
Her heart was hammering. Belatedly, Lucy remembered that Juvia could kill her in a second.  
  
“Master Jose?” Juvia repeated.  
  
Lucy nodded mutely.  
  
Juvia locked her arms tightly around Lucy's shoulders, holding her in place. Her skin rippled. Lucy squeaked. “Juvia!”  
  
Juvia drew more water into her body, and dissolved. She became a whirlwind of blades reaching up to the ceiling. Lucy cowered in the centre of the hurricane, arms over her head, and screamed. “ _Juviaaaa_!”  
  
Juvia annihilated the Shades. She sliced through the walls and ceiling and wraiths like they were all made of paper. She slashed the ghost soldiers into smaller and smaller pieces until there was nothing left, and then collapsed back into her real shape.  
  
“Juvia is sorry,” she said.  
  
Lucy squealed with delight. “Juvia, you're back to normal!” She flung her arms around her friend. “What are you sorry about? It's not your fault!”  
  
Juvia squeezed her eyes shut. Tears dripped down her cheeks. “Juvia is a bad friend. Juvia only makes people miserable, she should have trusted Lucy more and- oh? Oh no!” She flapped her hands at her face in distress. “Juvia is raining from her eyes!”  
  
“That's... cute,” Lucy said. “It's okay! Don't worry!” She stood on tiptoes to press her forehead against Juvia's. “It's not your fault! Let me explain-” Lucy hurriedly told Juvia how Jose had kidnapped her, how she'd escaped and come to Magnolia looking for her, how she'd been caught by the Fairies. With every word, Juvia's grip on Lucy's shoulder tightened and her eyes went almost black. “- and then the Fairies gave me back my weapons and let me go,” Lucy finished. “I think they must just be really, really... _really_ stupid.”  
  
Juvia didn't answer. She was looking over Lucy's shoulder. Her expression had changed.  
  
“Erza Scarlet's right behind me, isn't she,” Lucy said. Juvia nodded. Lucy turned around.  
  
Erza Scarlet had dropped into a defensive stance as soon as she came into the hall, as far as Lucy could tell. Her armour was gold, white and blue, with massive spiky shoulder guards, and she held a two-pointed spear in both hands. Her stare was focused on Juvia.  
  
“Hello,” Juvia said, and waved awkwardly. Erza Scarlet tightened her grip on her spear.  
  
“I'm looking for Master Makarov,” she said. “Will you tell me where the stairs to the cells went?”  
  
“Oh!” Juvia covered her mouth with one hands. “That's right! The stairs to the cells wouldn't be in the same place, now that the headquarters has shifted into Jupiter configuration. We have drills on it every month! Well, the high-ranking members and the control team, at least... oh, Juvia supposes Miss Scarlet wasn't at the drills...” She trailed off and pressed her hands together anxiously.  
  
The point of Erza's spear fell a little. She frowned. “Aren't you the same woman that I fought earlier?”  
  
“Yes!” Juvia said. “I'm very sorry about that. It was a terrible misunderstanding! It was a terrible misunderstanding caused by Master Jose, who is a liar and a traitor and Juvia is going to kill him _kill him_ KILL HIM!”  
  
Lucy blinked at Juvia, and said, “Um. Are you sure you're feeling all right?”  
  
“You mean to attack Jose directly?” Erza asked. Lucy blanched. Juvia nodded energetically. Erza considered it.  
  
“That's a terrible idea,” Lucy said, and was soundly ignored.  
  
“Please, allow me to help,” Erza said. “Defeating Jose would accomplish my aims just as well, and since you're challenging one of my guild's enemies, it would shame Fairy Tail if I didn't offer you my help.”  
  
Juvia clapped her hands. “Juvia would be delighted if Miss Scarlet would help her!”  
  
“Is that what we're doing, then?” Lucy said. “Is there not an option where we don't do that?”  
  
Erza swung her spear aside, crossed the hall and clasped hands with Juvia. “It'll be an honour to fight with you.” She thought for a moment. “ _Beside_ you. Do you know where Jose is?”  
  
“I don't want to sound like a wimp. It's just that it's scary when they're evil dark-wizard Mage Saints,” Lucy said, to the total disregard of all.  
  
“He went to the audience chamber to make the announcement over the communications lacrima,” Juvia said. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth set into a hard line. “Juvia thinks he will still be there.”  
  
Erza nodded grimly. “Let's go, then.”  
  
“Wait. Wait, wait!” Lucy said. “Can I make a suggestion?”

* * *

Fire roiled across the broken paving stones in front of the Fairies' ruined guild hall. The heat seared even through Gajeel's metal skin.  
  
Fuck _that_.  
  
“Iron Dragon's Club!” His left arm transformed into a steel bludgeon. He swung it up and brought it crashing down towards Natsu's head. Natsu dived out of the way and bounded back up onto his feet.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Roar!” Flames burst from his mouth. Gajeel threw one arm up over his face and fell back a step as the flames washed over him. Natsu grabbed Gajeel's club arm and yanked, trying to pull him off balance. Gajeel staggered, and grinned.  
  
“Iron Dragon's Blade!” Vicious steel spikes erupted from the edges of the club. Natsu recoiled with a shout. Gajeel whacked him square in the midsection and sent him rolling across the ground. “Gihihi! Is that the best the Fairy Butts can do, Salamander?”  
  
“Fire Dragon's Claw!” Natsu catapulted himself to his feet and charged Gajeel, covering the space between them in barely a second, and before Gajeel could block or dodge Natsu spun in the air and slammed a blazing kick into Gajeel's midsection. Gajeel was flung into the rubble of the guild hall. A cloud of dust rose up.  
  
“Don't you dare insult Fairy Tail!” Natsu shouted. “I won't forgive you for what you've done to our guild!”  
  
“Take a good look at the thing you're fighting for, Salamander!” Gajeel gestured to the debris of the Fairies' hall, in the massive shadow of Phantom's headquarters. “Your guild's a rubbish heap!” He rolled to his feet and dragged a twisted steel joist out of the wreckage.  
  
“Fairy Tail isn't a building! Fairy Tail is the mages in it!” Natsu snarled. “You can demolish the whole city and we'll still fight you!”  
  
Gajeel tore the end off the joist with his teeth and swallowed.  
  
“Hey!” Natsu bared his teeth and flailed. “How come you get to eat?”  
  
“That's what you get for having a shitty element, Salamander,” Gajeel jeered. “You ready for round two?”  
  
Natsu swiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and scowled. “I'm done playing around with you, you scrap-metal bastard!” They clashed again with roars and heavy blows.  
  
Sue peeked out around the edge of the headquarters' leg. The two Dragon Slayers were blurs of fists and bared teeth and rolling bursts of flame. She huddled closer behind the robot leg.  
  
“...One of them's gonna die, right?”  
  
“Not Gajeel,” said Bozo. “Wait.” He looked up. “Do you hear something?”

* * *

“White Fire!” The door to the roof blew off in a flash. Totomaru clattered up the stairs onto the roof.  
  
“This is the most fucking atmospheric thing I ever saw,” Totomaru said. The rain battered down on them. Overhead hung the barrel of the Jupiter cannon. “I can't believe I only just thought of this. Of course you never did, so clearly I still have the overwhelming advantage!” He spun and levelled his katana. “En garde, asshole!” Gray raced up the steps behind him. He was holding a massive claymore. Totomaru stared. “Where are your pants?”  
  
Gray looked down, and then around. His pants were not in the immediate vicinity.  
  
“In the eight seconds that I wasn't watching you, you misplaced your own pants? I suppose I should be grateful you're still wearing underwear,” Totomaru said.  
  
Gray shrugged. “When I win, I'm taking your pants.”  
  
“Are you some sort of deviant?”  
  
“What? No!”  
  
“You're a creepy clothes-stealing exhibitionist,” Totomaru said. “Ugh, I wish I was fighting Erza Scarlet. I bet she's never been arrested for indecent exposure. You clearly have no idea what you're doing. You should Ice-Make yourself some pants and a pointy little dunce hat.”  
  
“How did we get into this, anyway?” Gray snapped.  
  
“You did that fancy running-up-the-wall thing and then I did something cooler and you got competitive,” Totomaru said.  
  
“It was you that got competitive!” Gray snapped. Their blades clashed. They broke apart and circled each other warily. “This is stupid, anyway.”  
  
“Oh, so you want to give up? I suppose I can destroy you however you like,” Totomaru said.  
  
Gray scowled. “I'm a mage of Fairy Tail. We won't be beaten at anything!” He slashed at the blade of Totomaru's katana. The crash rang out and reverberated across the roof.  
  
“Even though you're hopelessly overmatched? Well, I have to admire that sort of tenacity,” Totomaru said.  
  
“You talk too damn much,” Gray said. Their blades clashed together. They both pushed against the clinch, trying to knock the other off-balance. “Take this seriously, you bastard! You've destroyed our guild hall!” He shoved hard, knocking Totomaru back.  
  
“Destroyed your guild hall?” Totomaru repeated, and lashed out at Gray's side. Gray had to leap aside to avoid it. “You could easily have avoided that. All you had to do was not kidnap one of our mages.”  
  
“We never kidnapped any of your mages,” Gray informed him, falling back and holding his claymore defensively. “Natsu's been an idiot, yeah, but after that your master grabbed the Heartfilia chick for her dad's money and pretended we stole her out of your own guild hall or some crap like that. Once she got away from him, she showed up here, we caught her and she told us about it.”  
  
Totomaru raised an eyebrow at him. “So as soon as she handily escaped she came to tell you all about it? And you didn't hand her over when Master Jose was threatening to fire Jupiter at you? That sounds rather implausible, doesn't it?” He tossed his katana absently from one hand to the other. “Not that I'm calling you a liar. I wouldn't say you were good enough at lying to be a liar.”  
  
“It's the truth,” Gray snapped. “You think we'd try to nick someone off Phantom? Everyone knows how touchy you bastards are.”  
  
“You realise the girl in question is Juvia Lockser's partner? You're saying that Master Jose kidnapped one of his best mages' close friends. That's absurd,” Totomaru said. His expression darkened. He lifted his katana. “You said you wanted me to take this more seriously, didn't you? Shall we start here?” He sliced his katana through the air ahead of him. “White Fire!”  
  
An arc of eyesearing white flame erupted in the wake of the blade. The blast picked Gray up and flung him into the wall like a rag doll. It shattered one of the skylights, mixing glass shards with the rain.  
  
Gray cried out and convulsed around the injury he'd got on Galuna Island. Blood ran down his face from his hairline. He fell forward, both hands pressed to the ground. “Ice-Make: Floor!” Ice rippled out from his hands and coated the roof, forming a thin slippery layer underfoot. Totomaru shifted his stance for greater stability, and laughed.  
  
“You know my Yellow Fire can melt through this in a second, don't you?”  
  
Gray wasn't about to give him that second. “Ice-Make: Lance!”  
  
“White Fire!” Totomaru shouted again, but this time he gestured at the floor. The blast tossed him high into the air, over the lances, and shattered the ice floor. Totomaru twisted in midair and landed on his feet. Then he slipped on the shards of the ice sheet and fell on his ass. “Ow!” He flung out a hand. “Orange Fire!”  
  
Gray slammed both fists together. “Ice-Make: Shield!”  
  
The flame crashed against the icy wall and licked around it. Gray staggered back, gagging. “Eurgh! What is that?” He covered his face with both hands. “That's foul!”  
  
“Haha! That's my shit-scent flame,” Totomaru said, climbing back to his feet. “Enjoy reeking like diarrhoea for the rest of the day, assmunch!”  
  
“Ugh. You're vulgar,” Gray said.  
  
“At least I'm wearing pants,” Totomaru retorted.  
  
“Is this a game to you?” Gray demanded. “Ice-Make: Hammer!” He caught the shaft of the massive sledgehammer in both hands and braced against its weight. “How do you think we'd ever lose to you? You're not fighting for anything!”  
  
“Do you really think any of us are fighting to save this princess you stole?” Totomaru asked, astonished. “That's.... quaint. Juvia might have been before she did her acrobatic flying flip off the handle, but I never even met the girl. This is to put you bastards back in your place. This is to punish you for daring to strike against Phantom.” He grinned. “This is _pest control_.”  
  
Gray tightened his grip on the sledgehammer and swung it back. “I'm going to knock that smug expression off your face,” he growled.  
  
Totomaru laughed. “Try it, ice mage - wait.” He tipped his head on one side. “Do you hear that?”

* * *

The door to the audience chamber blew off its hinges. Flashes of lightning and scraps of shredded wraith soldiers drifted around the doorframe as Juvia and Erza Scarlet stepped into the room. Lucy followed behind them.  
  
Jose stood and advanced on them down the steps of his throne, past the communications lacrima. His eyes narrowed. His lips drew back to show his tombstone teeth. “What is the meaning of this? Have you turned traitor, Juvia?” The temperature fell. The shadows twisted in the corners of the room. Sickening fear slid down Lucy's spine.  
  
“Master Jose betrayed Juvia first!” Juvia shouted. “He lied to Juvia! He stole her partner!”  
  
“You kidnapped me for my father's money,” Lucy said, speaking loudly and clearly, “and blamed it on the Fairies, and when I escaped you told my partner I'd defected so she would try to kill me for you. Didn't you?”  
  
“I did,” Jose confirmed, and smirked. “I can deal with my own mages as I like. If that troubles you, Miss Heartfilia, you should have left a long time ago.”  
  
Lucy exhaled. “How do you expect anyone to follow you when you just turn on them like that?”  
  
“They should be honoured to be allowed into my guild,” Jose said. “I created Phantom Lord! I named it for myself. I absorbed dozens of weak minor guilds and turned them into the subdivisions. I made Phantom Lord the strongest guild in Fiore. Our power was unsurpassed, our numbers were unsurpassed, our wealth was unsurpassed!” His eyes glittered, and then he scowled. “Weaklings like you should consider it an honour to be permitted to wear my mark.”  
  
“What? You've barely done anything!” Lucy said. “You didn't join in when they attacked the Fairy hall. You just let Gajeel and the Element Four tackle Makarov for you. You didn't go looking for me. You didn't even go look for Juvia yourself, you just used your Shades magic! You're like a summoner hiding behind their spirits. You've just been sitting around for hours!”  
  
Jose smirked. “Why should I dirty my own hands on Fairy scum when there are trash willing to do it for me?”  
  
“...what did you just call us?” Lucy said.  
  
“Trash,” Jose said, with undisguised pleasure. “Weak, whinging trash, too busy jockeying for position among other mewling trash to ever achieve anything. Easily led-” He stopped there, because Lucy was smiling.  
  
He looked at her. Lucy's smile widened. Jose looked over his shoulder. The loudspeaker lacrima glowed faintly.  
  
Lucy had been practising activating magical items from a distance for a while now.  
  
“How dare you? You little bitch!” Jose wheeled around and blasted the lacrima. It exploded. Lucy ducked to avoid the flying shards. One pierced through Juvia's middle. Another glanced off Erza's breastplate.  
  
The temperature plummeted. Juvia's breath coiled out as mist. The shadows writhed in the corners of the room. Lucy felt sick, almost like being back at Cypress Town when Eiry opened the summoning gate.  
  
“Lucy, please get back! This is dangerous!” Juvia said. Lucy got out of there in a hurry.

* * *

Gajeel stared up at the headquarters. His mouth hung open.  
  
“Your master's an asshole,” Natsu said. He was swaying on his feet, feeling the effects of fighting too long without a recharge. Gajeel wheeled on him.  
  
“Shut your fucking mouth!”  
  
Natsu scowled. “He just said he set the whole thing up!”  
  
“No, he didn't! It's your fault! You attacked us first!” Gajeel pointed at the wreckage of the Fairies' guild hall. “And look what you got for it, Salamander! That's your fault!”  
  
“I was only trying to get you to come fight me!” Natsu snapped. “And then you showed up with all your friends in a giant robot! That's cheating!” He brandished a fist at Gajeel.  
  
Gajeel laughed. “Any idiot knows you're not supposed to just jump other guilds' mages!” he said, ignoring the many, many occasions when he'd done just that. “What sort of operation is your master running here? Can't he keep a leash on you bastards?”  
  
Natsu snarled. “Don't you dare insult our old man!”  
  
That hit a nerve, huh?  
  
“We grabbed your master a while back,” Gajeel taunted him. “He tried to pull some heroic last stand bullshit and got his ass kicked for it.” He grinned. “We're gonna kill the _crap_ out of the old man-”  
  
Natsu roared and charged. “Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” Gajeel's eyes widened. A white-hot inferno coalesced around Natsu's fist. Flames burst out from between the broken paving stones and trailed in his wake like the tail of a comet.  
  
Gajeel jumped out of the way. Natsu missed, hit the ground so hard it cratered, and rolled over and over.  
  
Shit. Wasn't the kid on the ropes a minute ago? That would have hurt.  
  
If it had _hit_.  
  
Gajeel laughed like a hyena. “That the best you got, Salamander? You wouldn't last ten seconds in a real guild!”  
  
Natsu dragged himself out of the crater, teeth bared. “A real guild?” He pointed up at the headquarters. “That's not a real guild!”  
  
Gajeel's grin vanished. He kicked Natsu back into the crater. “You better stay down this time if you want out of this in one piece, trash!”  
  
“ _You're_ trash,” Natsu rebutted wittily.  
  
Gajeel beat the crap out of him. He knocked the other Dragon Slayer down, kicked him savagely in the chest and gut until he was wheezing and spitting blood, and then hauled him off the ground again by the neck of his jacket.  
  
“Still feeling fucking cocky, Salamander?”  
  
“Fairy Tail's a better guild than Phantom'd ever be,” Natsu rasped.  
  
Gajeel spiked him into the ground. Natsu cried out, jerked and stopped moving. Gajeel stood there for a second, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides, then spat, turned and stomped away.  
  
“Trash,” Natsu said, behind him. Gajeel whirled around, shouting. Natsu was unconscious. He wasn't saying anything. Gajeel looked around. The scum – Fairy or Phantom, it didn't matter – were peeking around the corners of buildings and side streets, pale worried faces glowing like targets.  
  
“What, you want to fight?” he demanded. “Come on, then!” He spread his hands wide. “Phantom Lord's Iron Dragon, at your service!”  
  
They only stared.  
  
Gajeel roared and slammed both iron fists into the ground. The stones broke apart. “Stop staring at me!”

* * *

Totomaru was sitting on the roof. His mouth opened and shut. He struggled to find words.  
  
Gray rubbed the back of his own neck and said “Huh. What a douchebag.”  
  
“Such a douchebag!” Totomaru agreed fervently. Gray offered him a hand up.  
  
“I'm sorry, my mother taught me not to touch strange men with no pants,” Totomaru said.

* * *

“Double Wave!” Juvia shouted, both hands raised to the ceiling. The twin walls of water that crashed down on Jose drenched him from head to foot but didn't knock him down. Erza spun her spear in her hands.  
  
“Lightning Strike!” Electricity leapt from the point of the spear. Jose redirected it. It lanced through his wet clothes, but didn't touch him. Still limned in crackling yellow light, Jose lifted his hands.  
  
“Shade Entangle!”  
  
More ghost soldiers burst out of the floor and wrapped around Juvia and Erza. Erza fought, but the wraiths bound her arms too tightly and squeezed the air from her lungs. She couldn't get free. Juvia slid out of the tangle, her water body separating and reforming seamlessly as she passed through the wraiths, and slashed at the Shades imprisoning Erza. “Water Slicer!”  
  
The shades came apart, and the arcs of pressurised water broke against Erza's greaves and breastplate. Erza requipped into a different armour, with lacquered black protective plating and two batlike wings extending from her shoulderblades, and as her wings snapped out wide they tore the rest of the Shades off her. She settled into a defensive stance, sword drawn, breathing heavily. “Thank you, Juvia.”  
  
“Miss Scarlet is welcome,” Juvia said.  
  
“Such admirable persistence,” Jose said. His smile widened until it looked as if it would split his head in two. His eyes had gone black from edge to edge, and they glittered with bloodlust. “Yes. You're both women worth killing... Dark Explosion!” He swiped one hand across in front of him, triggering a chain of explosions. The blast caught Erza's wings and flung her high into the air. Juvia was splattered back against the wall. Erza twisted in midair and dived, sword out. She flashed past Jose just as Juvia dragged her body back together and cast Water Slicer.  
  
Jose's Shades wrapped around him like a shield and took the force of the attacks.  
  
Jose took a step back. That was all.  
  
Erza staggered from the momentum and shoved her sweat-damp hair out of her eyes. They weren't making a scratch on him? If she hadn't already lost that fight to Juvia...  
  
Jose brought both hands together. “Shade: Jellyfish!” The wraiths whirling around the audience chamber merged themselves together into a massive amorphous shape with dozens of reaching hands. It grabbed at Juvia. It wound its arms around her legs, her waist, her shoulders. It locked around her like an anaconda. She was barely visible under the mass. There was no space left for her to pour herself through. Juvia shrieked, and the scream was abruptly cut off as the Shade's tendrils closed over her face.  
  
“Juvia!” Erza shouted, and shot past Jose to hack at the massive Shade.  
  
“Dark Explosion!”  
  
The chain of detonations tossed Erza off her feet. She hit the floor and rolled. Her wings crumpled up.  
  
“I must thank you for providing me with so much entertainment,” Jose said. He was breathing hard. Blocking their attacks had required more of his power than he had expected. He couldn't stand that one of his most valuable mages would turn on him like that! He couldn't stand that a mage of Erza Scarlet's potential existed in Makarov's guild! “But I've had my fill of you now.” He brought one hand back. Dark energy swirled around it. “Dead Wave!” A flood of Shades rushed towards Erza and Juvia.  
  
“Form Mirror!”  
  
A collection of mirrors materialised in front of Juvia and Erza and swallowed up the dark magic. Then it shattered. The dark energy burst free. It shattered the windows, knocked Jose's throne down and tore the plaster from the walls. Jose himself was knocked to the ground.  
  
Sue's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell. Bozo caught her.  
  
Erza climbed to her feet. Juvia slashed herself free of the jellyfish from inside and shouted “Sue and Bozo must leave! This is a dangerous-”  
  
She looked past them. It wasn't just Bozo and Sue.  
  
Juvia ducked.  
  
The mages of Phantom Lord attacked all at once. Jose threw up a shield of swirling wraiths. Purple needles of energy and bullets that splashed into magical seals as they hit crashed against the shield. It cracked.  
  
“Concrete-Make: Hammer!” one of the Phantom mages shouted, conjuring up a massive warhammer which slammed into Jose's shield. It fractured.  
  
“You wish to die?” Jose roared. “I am your _master_ -” The air swirled behind him as a wind mage who had turned her own body into air transformed back. “Wind Blade!”  
  
The attack hit Jose square in the back. His forehead rebounded off his own shield. The shield shattered. He whirled about and blasted the wind mage out of the broken windows.  
  
“How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?”  
  
“Sierra!” Juvia's body boiled. She struck Jose in a raging torrent, rebounded off the wall and hit him again. He was knocked off his feet. His hair was askew and his cape was falling off. He bared his teeth in a snarl. “Juvia, you treacherous-”  
  
There was a blur and Erza appeared beside him, a momentary glimpse of a cheetah-patterned top before that armour dissolved and was replaced by black plate, spikes and a massive spiked club. She swung the club into Jose's stomach, two-handed, and whacked him across the room like she was playing cricket.  
  
“Lucy! Now!”  
  
Jose scrambled to his feet, ashen with fury, face contorted into an animalistic snarl, and Lucy smiled. She was leaning on Caelum in its cannon form. A green light glowed at the end of its barrel. “Caelum! Come on!”  
  
The cannon fired. Jose was blasted with green light. He roared with rage as the energy blast shredded his hasty shield and tore at his defences.  
  
He was the master of Phantom Lord! He was one of the Ten Mage Saints! These upstart children could not be permitted to-  
  
Jose blasted a hole in the floor, and fell.  
  
He fell deep into the bowels of the castle. His Shades whirled around him, trying to break his fall, but it was too late. He hit the floor three storeys down and hauled himself slowly, laboriously to his feet.  
  
His teeth were bared. His eyes were narrowed to slits. Unspeakable. Unforgiveable. He reached for the medallion at his collar that marked him as one of the Ten Mage Saints. He would show them all his power, he would-  
  
The medallion fell to the floor and rolled away, jingling. The clasp had snapped in the fall. Jose scrabbled after it and snatched it up in both hands.  
  
Those ungrateful traitorous filth! How dare they? How dare they? He snarled. He would not tolerate being disrespected like this. He would purge the entire guild of all the traitors, all the uppity weaklings, all the worthless dross. He would destroy all the enemies of his guild.  
  
He would start with Makarov. That would punish the Fairy trash for their insolence. That would show the rest of them that he wouldn't abide this humiliation. Jose limped hurriedly through the corridors towards the prison cells. There would be little time to savour it.  
  
That little _bitch_. She was cheating him of his vengeance. He would kill her slowly for that.  
  
He went down the steps into the dungeon, and stopped. The dozen guards he had set there were all lying on the floor.  
  
No!  
  
He half-ran past the guards. The door to Makarov's cell was still locked and barred -but it was empty. Jose stared through the grille of the door in horror. Someone had taken the old man away and then tidily closed the door behind them. Who had done this? How had the guards allowed this to happen?  
  
The guards weren't dead. They were all only sleeping.  
  
Jose would make them wish they were dead! He blasted them all with dark energy. They jerked and skidded away across the floor.  
  
Above, someone shouted. “Listen! You hear that?”  
  
“The cells!” someone else called back.  
  
Jose looked up. Phantom mages were gathering at the top of the steps, more and more every second, blocking out the light.  
  
Jose's lips skinned back to show all his teeth.  
  
“You treacherous filth,” he breathed. “Come on!”

* * *

Some time later, Lucy and Juvia were running through the hallways. Well, walking quickly. Juvia wasn't running anywhere in those heels.  
  
“Does Lucy think Gajeel will be very upset?” Juvia asked worriedly.  
  
“No! Noooo,” Lucy lied.  
  
Juvia touched her lower lip. “Then why is Lucy so insistent that Juvia come?”  
  
“We're ganging up on him. I can't be a gang by myself!” Lucy said.  
  
The warp to the ground was still working. When Lucy and Juvia got down there, they stepped out of the shadow of the headquarters, shielded their eyes against the sunset, and saw Gajeel spectacularly flipping out.  
  
“Get out here, trash! What, are you scared to fight me?” he yelled, and swore, and yanked a sharp piece of metal out of the wreckage of the guild hall like he was going to eat it but instead flung it away across the ground. The edges sparked as it skidded over the stone. “Come on!”  
  
Lucy couldn't actually see who he was yelling at. It looked like everyone had sensibly gone far away from the maniac. She couldn't see anyone else around except for Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer, lying in a heap at the bottom of a crater. Jeez. Was he okay? When she'd told Gajeel to kick his ass, she hadn't meant 'keep kicking after he's passed out'! Now she almost felt bad for him.  
  
“Gajeel!” she called. “Hi!”  
  
Gajeel made a rude gesture at her. “Fuck off!”  
  
“Oi! Is that any way to talk to someone?” Lucy hollered back. “Isn't Jose a jerk?”  
  
“Hey! Shut up!” Gajeel yelled.  
  
“Everybody else thinks so,” Lucy said. “They all showed up to kick his ass. Sue, Bozo, everyone.”  
  
“Who gives a crap about Sue and Bozo?” Gajeel said, folded his arms and glowered. “What do you mean, everybody?”  
  
“Oh, everybody,” Lucy said, and looked at Juvia. “Like, everybody in First Division. It was pretty much unanimous.”  
  
“At least thirty-four people. Juvia does not think the medics have finished treating the wounded yet, though,” Juvia said. “And Juvia, too! Juvia has decided Master Jose was not a good guild master. HE WAS A LIAR AND JUVIA HOPES THAT HE WILL DIE. Juvia does not want to follow him any more!”  
  
Lucy had leant sharply away and twisted to look at Juvia. Now she raised her hands in a magician's _voila!_ gesture. “Juvia feels very strongly about it! I expect everyone else does too!”  
  
“Well, that's your fault,” Gajeel growled.  
  
“Nuh-uh!” Lucy said. “Right, Juvia?”  
  
“Juvia agrees. It was Master Jose's fault!”  
  
Gajeel looked between the two of them. He screwed up his face.  
  
Gajeel was a scary cranky asshole in a guild full of scary cranky assholes. He'd always been louder and angrier and quicker to throw a punch than anyone.  
  
Lucy was taking a gamble, based completely on something Juvia had told her once - _“Juvia worries about Gajeel. She thinks he seems lonely.”_  
  
Gajeel took a step towards them, and said “Fuck Jose, then. Who needs him?” He said it carefully, like he was testing it out, and watched them through narrowed eyes for their response.  
  
Lucy exhaled. “Nobody does! Did we tell you he ran straight down to the dungeons? Stupid, right?” She laughed. Juvia chuckled politely, one hand over her mouth. Gajeel forced out a laugh and took another step towards them. Lucy moved aside to make a space between her and Juvia, and Gajeel stomped over to fill it.  
  
“You know, it's been a rubbish day,” Lucy said. “Anyone want to go find a drink?”

* * *

A dot appeared over the rooftops of Magnolia and grew larger until it resolved into a blue flying cat. It spiralled down out of the sky and fell onto Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer. “Natsuuu!”  
  
Natsu cracked one eye open. “I want a rematch,” he said.  
  
“Natsu, you can't fight again now!” Happy protested. “Stay here! I'll get you a fish!”  
  
Natsu rolled over and hauled himself up the slope of the crater. Happy grabbed his scarf and tried to drag him back down. Natsu heaved himself over the lip of the crater, looked forward and saw Erza Scarlet's boots. He looked up. Erza Scarlet stared down at him.  
  
Natsu very slowly slid back down into the bottom of the crater. Happy tried to flee. Erza Scarlet's hand flashed out and caught him by the tail.  
  
“Natsu,” she said.  
  
Natsu wibbled.  
  
“Erza!” someone called. “Erza!”  
  
Erza's expression changed. She looked up, eyebrows raised, and then tore across the street. “Master! Where did you find him?”  
  
“A man in a hat threw him at me and ran away,” Mira said. “It was very odd. But I don't like to complain!”  
  
Makarov was sitting in Elfman's arms, looking comfortable enough although still grey in the face. Most of Fairy Tail were trailing after Elfman and Mira like ducklings. Makarov pointed. “Take me over there!” Elfman obeyed immediately. “Heh, heh. I could get to like this,” Makarov said to Erza over one of Elfman's massive shoulders as Elfman carried him towards the ruin of the guild hall. Erza waited tensely. Elfman set Makarov down in front of the wreckage and hovered, because Men didn't let their guild masters fall over on their face. Makarov looked the destruction over.  
  
“So they wrecked our shitty bar? So what,” he said. “Cana. Did you get everyone out?”  
  
“Nearly,” Cana said, and hung her head. “We left Loke behind by mistake. He's been taken to the hospital now. Alzack, Macao, Wang Chan-Ji and Laki, too, from the fighting after.”  
  
“Those brats? They're like roaches. They'll be fine,” Makarov said. “You did well, Cana.” Cana looked surprised. Makarov lifted his head. “Natsu...”  
  
Natsu scrambled up. Makarov didn't turn around, or say anything. He just sighed and dropped his head. Natsu looked at his back for a moment, and then clambered out of the crater and limped hurriedly into a corner. He locked his hands behind his back and stared at the wall.  
  
“We got pummelled, huh?” Makarov said, and turned around. “That's fine. Human beings are weak by nature, and if we try to pretend that we're not, it makes us even weaker. It's when we accept our weakness, reach out to others, and press on despite all setbacks, that we can become strong. So it doesn't matter if they trashed our shitty bar-” The guild hall Mavis built a hundred years ago and passed onto Purehito, who handed it on to him. Hah, Makarov was just surprised it wasn't one of his own damn kids who did for it. “- because we'll work together to build a better one, and go on living strong together. That's what it means to be a Fairy Tail mage!”  
  
He thrust one hand up to the sky, index finger pointed, and, with a wordless reverberating shout, everyone in Fairy Tail did the same.  
  
Lucy stared down at them. “Did you see that?” She looked sideways at Gajeel and Juvia. They were looking down with the same wide-eyed astonished faces. “They're like a cult!”  
  
“Juvia thinks they look happy,” Juvia said, toying with her drink. They were all perched on the edge of the castle's foundation, watching the crowd almost directly underneath them. The bar inside the castle was being thoroughly looted, but Juvia and Gajeel had still managed to acquire a beer, a glass of juice and a sugary pink cocktail with an umbrella in by dint of being Juvia and Gajeel.  
  
“They're mental,” Gajeel growled.  
  
“It sounds nice,” Lucy said, “but it's way too idealistic! Even though they're like a hundredth the size of Phantom, there's still too many of them for anyone to know everybody else.” The Fairies could yell about friendship and team-building exercises all they wanted. Lucy wouldn't trust any of them to actually mean it. How had Fairy Tail managed to last so long if they all made themselves so vulnerable?  
  
“That, and they're mental,” Gajeel said.  
  
Juvia looked at Gajeel and Lucy and said “Actually yes Juvia agrees it is a flawed system.”  
  
Then a voice boomed out, magically amplified until the ground shook. “Nobody move!” The Fairies looked around, puzzled.  
  
“We are the Magic Council's Enforcement and Investigation Squad! Lay down any weapons in your possession! Anyone who tries to cast a spell will be incapacitated with extreme prejudice!” The street flooded with blue-cloaked, spear-toting Rune Knights, showing up immediately after the nick of time. The Fairies yelled and made to flee on reflex.  
  
“Wait! We've barely done anything wrong this time!” Cana yelled, as their master collapsed into a little puddle of woe.  
  
“Oh," Lucy said. "Maybe instead of getting drinks we should have run away."


	16. Aftermath I

The maid bounced anxiously on her toes. “Are you sure you want to go in dressed like-”  
  
“It's fine. Don't worry,” Lucy said. She was wearing her red Heart Kreuz tee and black miniskirt. It felt great to be out of those awful baggy trousers, but her stomach was still doing flips.  
  
She knocked on the door.  
  
“Come in,” her father said.  
  
Lucy took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped inside. “Good morning, Father.” The study hadn't changed. It had the same heaviness to it: the solid dark wood of the desk, the close-packed books on the bookshelves, the thick velvet curtains, the still air that swallowed her voice.  
  
Her father had been looking out of the window, a black outline against the sunlight, but as Lucy crossed the room to stand in front of his desk he turned around. His eyes widened.  
  
“What's the meaning of this? How dare you bring that sort of people into this house?”  
  
“Water Slicer!” The arc of pressurised water split his desk in half. Lucy's father leapt backwards as the two pieces fell apart. “Juvia will not tolerate such insults!”  
  
Gajeel scowled at Juvia. “What was that? What, you never trashed someone's place before, Lockser? You're meant to pretend it's accidental!”  
  
Ryos nodded agreement. He was halfway through a plate of cookies the catering staff had given him for being small and adorable. There were crumbs all around his mouth.  
  
“Accidental?” Juvia repeated, taken aback. “I see...” She turned back to Lucy's father and wrung her hands. “Juvia is so sorry! Please, allow Juvia to pay for the damage!”  
  
“What? No!” Gajeel said. “Like this, watch!” He scooped up an ornate pen-holder from the desk. “Nice desk-thing you got here, old man. Shame if anything happened to it-” He flung it into the nearest column. The elegant filigree shattered. “Oops! Gihihihi!”  
  
Lucy's father stared, mouth hanging open. “This – Lucy, this is unforgivable! I will summon the Rune Knights if you can't control-”  
  
“What for?” Lucy said. “You wanted me to come home. I've come home. Aren't you pleased to see me?”  
  
“You're behaving like a child,” her father snapped. “If you wish to be allowed back into this house, you had best be prepared to grow up, and you can begin by dismissing those thugs and apologising for running away like a petulant infant!”  
  
Juvia raised one hand to cast another Water Slicer. Lucy gestured, and Juvia went still. Gajeel grinned.  
  
“Don't misunderstand me,” Lucy said. “I realise that I shouldn't have run away without saying anything, and I am sorry about that, because apparently that wasn't clear enough for you. I'm not staying here.”  
  
Her father gaped.  
  
“I don't care about your money, and I'm not interested in being Heartfilia's Lucky Lucy any more. I'm going to walk my own path, and I won't let anyone – not you, not Master Jose – decide what I should do!” She had to stop there to take a deep breath. Gajeel was grinning ear to ear. “If you hadn't tried to have me kidnapped, we could have been more civil,” Lucy said. “But it's too late for that. If you ever bother me again, I'm going to take it as a declaration of _war_ , and I'll raze every station of Heartfilia Railways and every factory you own to the ground!”  
  
Juvia and Ryos nodded grim approval. Gajeel cackled maniacally.  
  
“I'm holding off now, for Mother's sake, and the sake of all the people who live here,” Lucy said, “but I'm sure that if – if Mother were still alive, she would tell me to follow my heart. So this is it. I'm done with you now.” She turned towards the door. “Goodbye, Father.” She opened the study door and walked away. Juvia stepped back, nodded, said “Mr Heartfilia,” and left.  
  
Gajeel held up both middle fingers, and then stomped after them.  
  
Ryos offered Mr Heartfilia the last cookie, to be polite.  
  
“No, thank you,” Mr Heartfilia said, so Ryos polished it off, put the empty plate neatly on one of the halves of the desk and scampered after the others.  
  
They left the house and headed down a long broad path away from the house.  
  
“Where are you going? Train station's that way,” Gajeel said, and pointed.  
  
“I want to visit my mother's grave,” Lucy said.  
  
“Do we have time for that?” Gajeel said. “We're meant to run along to the Judicial Palace by tomorrow morning.”  
  
“Gajeel,” Juvia said.  
  
Gajeel pulled a face that pretty obviously meant 'what? Her mum isn't getting any deader' but shut up.  
  
Lucy stood quietly in front of the tomb. Gajeel and Juvia hung back. The stone angel with her mother's face smiled down at her blankly. When would she be able to visit her mother's grave again? When her father was buried next to her? Lucy closed her eyes. Leaving the first time had been hard enough...  
  
Sneakers squeaked on the paving slabs as Ryos sidled up beside her. He shot her a sidelong look.  
  
“When people die, do they have to stay wherever you leave their body?” he said eventually, quietly enough that Gajeel and Juvia wouldn't hear. “If they're anywhere, they have to be everywhere. So you wouldn't ever have to be in a special place to mourn them.”  
  
Lucy thought about that, and smiled. She reached over and ruffled his hair. "You're cute, Ryos."  
  
Ryos yelped and flattened down his hair again.  
  
"Okay," Lucy said, and breathed in deep. "Should we go?"  
  
“Finally!" Gajeel said. "We got the whole estate to trek across still."  
  
“Oh, this isn't the whole estate, this is just the garden,” Lucy said. She pointed. “My father owns all the land up to those mountains.”  
  
Juvia, Gajeel and Ryos looked at mile after mile of rolling green fields and forests.  
  
“...Juvia is speechless,” Juvia said.  
  
Ryos considered it and then said “Is that practical? When you've got so much, you can't do enough with what you have to justify owning it,” because sometimes Ryos thought too much.  
  
IIf the princess's dad comes after her again," Gajeel said, "we should put disguises on and just hand her over. Dibs on a fake beard.”  
  
“...Gajeel,” Juvia said.  
  
“What? You'd look like crap in a beard, Lockser.”  
  
“Gajeel!”  
  
“What?” Gajeel made an annoyed gesture. “She'd just escape again, and we'd have his money!”  
  
Juvia made an exasperated face. Lucy laughed. “Should we go, then?”  
  
They had to go to the Judicial Palace because the Rune Knights hadn't been impressed by anyone's version of what happened, particularly since the Phantom Lord mages hadn't had time to work out if they should lie or not. “So... Fairy Tail kidnapped a Phantom mage, and then Phantom kidnapped a Fairy mage – what, it was the same girl? They kidnapped her back? So where did the giant robot headquarters come in? Also, since when was your headquarters a giant robot? … you know what, you're all guilty of something, we're hauling you all in.”  
  
So, basically, everyone with any significant involvement had been smacked with an official summons to court so that the Council could decide what they'd done and how to punish them for it. This meant that they'd had to hire rooms in the Palace, at the price of seven thousand jewels a night. Lucy decided this was a scam.  
  
Jose had been the first one called up to testify, since Makarov was still sick. As another witness, Lucy hadn't been allowed anywhere near the courtroom, but she'd sent her stellar spirit Musca down to perch on the lintel over the door and listen in. Jose ranted and raved about the traitors and the punishments he would inflict on them and held stubbornly on to the lie that Lucy'd wandered out of the Oak Town branch and been kidnapped by the Fairies.  
  
“Eighty percent of witness statements say that you broadcast a confession to the kidnapping across the whole of Magnolia,” one of the older councillors said. “How do you explain that?”  
  
“Lies!” Jose said. “They're lying, and they will suffer for it!”  
  
Lucy shivered. She was due to be questioned that afternoon. Over the lunch hour, she went walking outside on the great balcony that ran all around the outside of the upper palace. She was trying to get her thoughts in order, and worrying that as soon as they started asking her questions she would forget everything and lose the ability to speak and probably dribble on her top. She was wearing her blue miniskirt, a white sweater and her pink blouse; serious but also super-cute. Maybe _too_ cute?  
  
Lucy was chewing over that when she realised that there were other people outside, as well. Lucy stopped dead when she saw them. Erza Scarlet and Councillor Siegrain were standing close to the railing and closer to each other. She stood perfectly still. He was mesmerised by a lock of her red hair wound between his fingers, but his other hand was locked tight around one of her wrists.  
  
Lucy's first response was to back away slowly and quietly, but sadly that was exactly when Councillor Siegrain clocked her. He started. Erza whirled around.  
  
“I'm sorry!” Lucy said, backing away. “I didn't know you were-”  
  
“We're not friends,” Erza cut in.  
  
Lucy was about to say that yeah 'friends' didn't look like what was going on there, but then she realised that would be suicide.  
  
“We have people in common, that's all,” Siegrain said lightly. Erza's mouth set into a hard line. “You'll have to forgive Erza for interrupting; she wasn't raised in a household that valued manners.” He was still holding onto her wrist. “You're Lucy Heartfilia, right?”  
  
“Um, yes,” Lucy said, “but I prefer Lucy Ashley now.”  
  
“And you can legally change that once you're eighteen!” Siegrain said brightly. “Are you worried about your testimony? You shouldn't be. You're in no danger. The old fucks are trying to pin as much blame on Fairy Tail as possible. That's why they've called this trial in such a rush, when Makarov's still at home in a blanket cocoon.” He smiled. "Erza, you're going to owe Yajima ten tons of ramen if he can get you out of this one.” Erza didn't say anything. She was looking at Siegrain with an expression of absolute loathing, but she didn't even move.  
  
“Erza didn't do anything wrong,” Lucy said.  
  
“Of course she didn't!” Siegrain agreed, looking astonished by the very notion. “Erza's a _slave_ to her conscience-”  
  
Erza yanked her wrist from Siegrain's grip and swung her hand back as if she was going to slap him, and he smiled. He just smiled, because of course he would only be a thought projection and there was nothing she could do to him.  
  
Erza dropped her hand back to her side, spun on her heel and marched away.  
  
Lucy took a careful step backwards, trying not to look like she was backing up. Something about this was sending prickles all up and down her spine. Siegrain switched his attention back to her. “Anyway, like I said – it'll be fine! See you later, Miss Heartfilia!”  
  
And then the utter, utter _bastard_ munched popcorn all through her testimony. Lucy mentally crossed him off her Guys To Ever Consider Dating list, four times, thick black mental lines, and scribbled NO all over his picture. Then she went to the bar.  
  
The bar had been totally colonised by Fairies. Maybe Fairy Tail's tiny cult leader maintained his power by exploiting his mages' crushing dependency on booze? Well, she was only going to grab a lemonade, go back to the room she was sharing with Juvia, and pick over the trial until they both fell asleep. She wasn't going to be intimidated out of that by fairy butts.  
  
As she leant over the bar, waiting to get the barman's attention, a young orange-haired man wearing a green jacket and sunglasses indoors slid up beside her.  
  
“Wow, you're beautiful,” he said. “Would you let me buy you a drink?”  
  
Lucy didn't pass up free stuff from cute guys, but something was bugging her about this cute guy in particular. She had seen him before. Where had she seen him before?  
  
Oh. He was Loke, _Weekly Sorceror_ 's Official Most Eligible Bachelor, and he was also the Fairy Tail mage that Gajeel had beaten like a piñata.  
  
 _Awkward._  
  
He realised at the same time. “Oops – you're the Iron Dragon's girlfriend, right?” He stepped away, hands raised. “Forget I said anything!”  
  
“No! No no no! Noooo!” Lucy said. “Nooooo. No. Why does everyone assume I'm dating Gajeel? I'd rather date a troll!” A troll would have better table manners.  
  
“Maybe,” Loke said, “it's just too hard to believe that love wouldn't come to such a beautiful girl.” Lucy stared at him. “You're so radiant, it's lucky I'm wearing sunglasses. If I tried to look at you without them, I might be struck blind,” Loke told her earnestly.  
  
“...Right,” Lucy said, and then Erza shouted “What did you say?”  
  
For a moment Lucy thought Erza was criticising Loke's pick-up lines, but when she turned she saw that Erza was standing over a big guy with spiky yellow hair.  
  
“Who's that idiot?” she said under her breath. “Someone should shut him up and teach him how to wear a coat.” Seriously, his coat was just draped over his shoulders, it looked like it would blow off in a high wind.  
  
“That's Laxus,” Loke said. Oh. Crap.  
  
“Didn't you hear me?” Laxus said. “Listen harder – this guild doesn't need weak shits!” He turned and looked at Loke. “Getting your ass kicked by Phantom – how embarassing. Are you good for anything except posing for magazines and screwing around in bars?”  
  
“Laxus, stop it!” Mirajane said. She was sitting cross-legged on the bar. The barman didn't seem pleased about it. “You didn't participate and it's settled now.”  
  
Laxus laughed. “Of course it doesn't concern me, but if I'd been there I wouldn't have been used as a football – what's the old man thinking? Recruiting weaklings and Eisenwald cast-offs? Must be the old age getting to him-”  
  
“Laxus!” Natsu roared, and attacked, fists blazing. Laxus grinned. Erza moved faster. She punched Natsu in the gut and grabbed his head tight under her arm.  
  
“Natsu, stop it! Laxus, the acting master told you to be quiet. Be quiet!”  
  
“What?” Laxus scrunched up his face. “Mira got neutered. She can't be 'acting master' of shit.”  
  
“She reawakened Satan Soul during the war and the master put her in charge while he's ill,” Erza said shortly. Mirajane reached down behind her and produced a short staff with a smiley face at one end. Laxus gaped. Lucy could only assume that was Fairy Tail's official sceptre of office.  
  
What the hell was wrong with all of them?  
  
“I don't care!” Laxus exploded. “I'm not following anyone weaker than me, and I'm not giving up my position to anyone – not Mira, not Erza, not Mystogan or the old geezer!” Natsu was going crazy trying to attack someone in the actual bar of the Magic Council's Judicial Palace. Erza knocked him flat and put a knee on his back.  
  
“Mystogan took out their subdivisions and got the master back,” Cana snapped. “The only one who didn't help was you!”  
  
“I don't care!” Laxus yelled loudly. “And if that bastard ever grows the balls to fight me then I will put him in his fucking place!”  
  
Lucy raised a hand. “Excuse me, I have a question,” she said. “Where's Mystogan's place?”  
  
Everyone looked at her. “What?” Laxus said.  
  
“Mystogan's place. Where's that located? Geographically?”  
  
“ _Under me_!” Laxus snapped.  
  
There was a moment of silence. Lucy very slowly cranked up one eyebrow. The Fairies let out a startled peal of laughter. Laxus realised what he'd said, and an angry red flush flared across his cheekbones. The white scar over his eye stood out starkly.  
  
“Run,” Loke said.  
  
“He can't attack me,” Lucy pointed out. “I'm technically a civilian, and we're _in_ the-” The air smelled of ozone and the hair on the back of her neck was standing up.  
  
“Run!” Loke shouted, and yanked her off her stool. They ran for it. Lightning crashed behind them. The barman dived for cover. The bar shattered and there was a volley of loud cracks as the bottles behind it exploded.  
  
“Laxus!” Erza shouted. She leapt off Natsu and flung herself between Laxus and Lucy and Loke to clear their escape. Lucy and Loke shot out of the bar and tore through a labyrinth of identical corridors.  
  
“In here!” He pulled her into a broom cupboard and slammed the door behind them. Lucy stumbled over a bucket. It fell to the floor with a clang. Lucy yelped and covered her head. They stood silently in the dark, listening.  
  
“Why are we hiding?” Lucy whispered. She was trembling. “Is he going to come after us?” What a psycho! What a total psycho!  
  
“Probably?” Loke said. “It might not help. I'm pretty sure Laxus can track people he doesn't like by smell. Like a bloodhound.”  
  
Lucy made another mental addition to her list of People Not To Date Ever and said “...so why did you pull me in here?”  
  
“Oh no, you caught me. I just like to get pretty girls into cupboards,” Loke said.  
  
Lucy didn't think there was enough space for her to elbow him in the ribs. She shifted experimentally and a broom fell down. It clattered loudly against the bucket she'd tripped on earlier. They both froze until they were sure nobody would fling the door open and fry them both with lightning.  
  
Loke was stooping so his head wouldn't knock on the ceiling and Lucy was almost jammed into his chest. She could feel his ribs rise and fall with every breath. This was a really awkward situation.  
  
“I'm sorry about Gajeel,” she said, and then cursed herself for it because it wasn't like she was Gajeel's babysitter.  
  
“Don't worry about that,” Loke said, and chuckled. It was an odd sound, without any mirth in it. Lucy frowned. “It was my own fault, anyway. I'm not well.”  
  
“That's not your fault,” Lucy said. She peered up at him. In the dim light seeping around the edges of the door, he was ghastly pale and the shadows under his eyes looked like bruises. Lucy tried to edge away subtly, in case it was contagious, but was hampered by being stuck in a broom cupboard. “If you're that sick, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at home?”  
  
“It wouldn't matter,” Loke said bleakly. “I haven't got long left, whatever I do.”  
  
Lucy looked up at him, aghast. He couldn't possibly mean...? Her voice quavered. “You're _dying_?”  
  
Loke burst out laughing. “Oh, man. You fell for that?”  
  
Lucy stared.  
  
“It's a trick I use on girls to get sympathy cuddles,” Loke said. “Surprised?”  
  
“I hate that sort of joke!” Lucy shouted, and clawed herself free of the cupboard. She didn't even care if Laxus showed up. If he did, she'd bite his head off! She spun in the corridor and snatched her keys from her belt.  
  
“You're a stellar spirit mage?” Loke said. “Oh.” Now he looked worried. “I didn't see your keys under your jumper.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and looked for an escape route. “I don't do well with stellar spirit mages...”  
  
“You're about to do worse,” Lucy snapped. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”  
  
Taurus materialised in a burst of starlight and with a shout of “Miss Lucy's rack is the-” And then he stopped.  
  
“Taurus! Hit him!” Taurus hesitated. Why? Because he wasn't armed? Taurus was looking down at Loke, whose mouth had fallen open. “He's a total jerk!” Lucy said. “Taurus!”  
  
“Taurus,” Loke said coldly, “do as your master tells you.”  
  
Taurus smacked him into the wall. He slid down it and landed in a heap at the bottom.  
  
“Thanks, Taurus!” Lucy said. Taurus didn't say anything. She frowned. “Are you okay?” He nodded. Lucy spun her keys in her hand. “Taurus, go back!”  
  
He vanished.  
  
Ugh. He was being a jerk, wasn't he? He was asking for a slap, and Lucy couldn't slap hard enough by herself.  
  
Also, Lucy had never even got that drink. She was going to find Juvia.

* * *

Early the next morning, Sue and Bozo showed up at Lucy and Juvia's door with the day's schedule. (Bozo had a terrible weakness for organising.) Lucy leant in the doorway and yawned as she flicked through it. They wanted Gajeel and Juvia that day. Gajeel's testimony would be... interesting. She was so going to send Musca to watch that. Lucy turned the page. “Who are Charles and Susandrea van der Bozenstein? Poor them!”  
  
“Are you saying we have stupid names?” Bozo said.  
  
“Because you would be right. We do have stupid names,” said Sue.  
  
“Oh. You know, you can change that when you're eighteen,” Lucy said.  
  
“...I'm twenty-seven,” said Bozo.  
  
“Oh man, I'm gonna!” Sue said. “Susannah von der Murderface, that'll be me.” Lucy giggled.  
  
“Hey!” someone yelled. All three of them looked around.  
  
There was a Fairy storming towards them down the corridor. Bikini top, long brown hair - “Cana!” Lucy said. The one who was in charge when there weren't any better options. “What does she want?”  
  
“There aren't any Fairies on this corridor, are there?” Sue said.  
  
“It's actually standard policy to put people who have recently been trying to kill each other on opposite sides of the building. Funny, that,” Bozo said, and then he and Sue took a step back as the angry Fairy reached them. She was glaring at Lucy.  
  
“What do you want?” Lucy said.  
  
“What did you do with Loke?”  
  
Lucy shifted and put her hand on her keys. “He was rude, so I asked one of my spirits to give him a smack. That's it.”  
  
“He ran off with you, came back this morning and announced that he was leaving the guild!” Cana snapped. “Why'd he do that?”  
  
“How am I supposed to know that?” Lucy demanded. “Why don't you ask him?”  
  
Cana threw her hands out wide. “Because he's vanished!”  
  
“So you think I – what? Seduced him into quitting?” Lucy demanded. Killed him and stashed the body? She reached for her whip.  
  
“Yeek!” Sue and Bozo dived back out of the way as Lucy lashed out. Cana leapt backwards, and the whip cracked in air instead of against her calves. Cana reached into her bag.  
  
“Shuriken Cards!” She flung the handful of cards at Lucy. Lucy ducked. Most lanced over her head, but two opened up long slices across her shoulder and hip. “Ow!” She shook it off and drew her whip back for another strike. It cracked against the ceiling. There wasn't enough space to swing it, or Caelum. Lucy dropped the whip and reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Crab! Cancer!”  
  
Cancer appeared in a flash of starlight, scissors raised. He glanced at Cana. “ _Another_ fight?”  
  
“Yeah!” Lucy said, and pointed at Cana. “Give her a stupid haircut!”  
  
Cana drew another three cards from her bag. “Sexy Lady Card!” She threw them at Cancer. The cards exploded into beautiful women not wearing very many clothes at all, who locked their arms tight around Cancer.  
  
“Form an orderly line if you all want your hair done today, -ebi,” Cancer said, and vanished under a tide of gorgeous women.  
  
Lucy wailed. “Cancer, go back!” The pile of women collapsed inwards. This wasn't working! Why was she being accused of doing something to Loke anyway? Was he framing her? She needed to find out what was going on, not brawl with people in the middle of the Judicial Palace!  
  
“Lucy!” Juvia appeared in the doorway, still in her frilly nightgown. “Is something wrong?”  
  
“She's saying I did something to that Loke guy!” Lucy shouted. “So I'm going to find him and kill him until he says I didn't!”  
  
Juvia gasped, and then nodded. “Then please, go! Juvia will deal with this!”  
  
Lucy raced past Juvia back into their rented room. There was a great plate-glass window above the couch, looking out on a six-story drop to bare rock.  
  
“Open, Gate of the Chisel, Caelum! Sword Form!” Lucy smashed the glass out with Caelum and leapt through the window. Caelum transformed instantly into its Flight Form and, as Lucy began to fall, brought her up with a jerk that nearly tore her hands off Caelum's ring. Caelum buzzed off towards the train station, with Lucy still swinging underneath. Lucy looked at the rocky ground passing fifty feet below and called “Can we go down a bit lower, please?”  
  
Upstairs, Juvia swiped a hand through the air. “Water Slicer!”  
  
Cana dropped flat and the razor-edged arcs passed over her head. She fumbled a trio of cards from her bag and brandished them in front of her. “Icicle!” A volley of ice bullets erupted from the cards and lanced towards Juvia. They passed harmlessly through Juvia's body and shattered against the shield behind her.  
  
Juvia blinked and turned to look behind her.  
  
“Stop this immediately! Fighting in the Judicial Palace will _not be tolerated_!”  
  
“...Yes. Juvia will surrender,” Juvia said.  
  
Cana scowled at the Rune Knight lieutenant and his two subordinates. “This isn't anything to do with you!”  
  
“This building is the property of the Magic Council. That makes it our concern,” the lieutenant said. “What happened here?” He looked at Juvia. Juvia briefly forgot how to speak. Oh no! Was she somehow ill? This pitter-pattering in her chest- oh no! Why was she still wearing her nightgown? Juvia clutched at the hem of her nightdress and tried to pull it down further. Oh no! He would think she was some sort of scarlet woman!  
  
“Our friend Loke quit the guild and ran off suddenly,” Cana snapped. “Lucy Heartfilia was the last person who talked to him, so I came to find out what she'd done and they both jumped me!” She made an expansive exasperated gesture.  
  
The lieutenant shot her a suspicious look. “Are you inebriated?” he said, as Juvia hurriedly changed into her normal outfit.  
  
“No, ossifer!” Cana said. “... okay, I might be drunk now, but tomorrow-” She raised a finger. “-tomorrow I'll be sober, and you'll still be a dickhead cop.”  
  
“...caution her. Public intoxication,” the lieutenant said over his shoulder to his subordinates. They moved in. Juvia nearly swooned. So authoritative! Juvia's heart was not ready for this!  
  
“Where is Miss Heartfilia now?” the lieutenant asked her.  
  
“Lucy has not done anything!” Juvia squeaked, between her fingers. “Lucy is not at all a murderous person!” This ringing endorsement did not seem to impress anyone.  
  
“...no charges of murder have been brought against Miss Heartfilia,” the lieutenant said. “It's merely to clarify the situation.”  
  
“Um... Juvia is not sure." Juvia poked the tips of her fingers together. "Juvia thinks that Lucy meant to find the man who has left Fairy Tail and politely discuss the situation with him, but she doesn't know where Lucy went after she jumped out of the window.”  
  
The lieutenant did a double-take. “Jumped out of the-” He took a couple of steps forward and looked over Juvia's shoulder. The curtains billowed in the breeze through the broken window. His expression changed. Oh no! His employers' building had been damaged! What should Juvia do?  
  
“Juvia is very sorry! She will pay for the damage!”  
  
“Thank you very much,” the lieutenant said, with an air of fatality, and turned away. “This disappearance will have to be followed up.”  
  
Juvia clasped her hands together. “Juvia would like very much to come with you!”  
  
The lieutenant hesitated, searching for a polite way to refuse. “That would be highly irregular-” Did he not want Juvia to come because he was inviting another woman?  
  
“Please! Lucy is Juvia's very dear friend and she is sure that Lucy has done nothing wrong. She will not allow anyone to accuse Lucy falsely!”  
  
The lieutenant sighed a little. “I suppose you could be helpful. If you promise not to interfere.”  
  
Juvia clapped her hands. “Juvia will be on her best behaviour! Juvia is very happy to work with-” She trailed off. The lieutenant extended a hand.  
  
“Lahar, Fourth Custody Enforcement Squad. It's a pleasure.”

* * *

Ryos had been leaning against the door, listening in. Gajeel was still asleep, having apparently not noticed the noisy battle going on outside. Ryos padded cautiously closer to the bed.  
  
“Boss?”  
  
Gajeel cracked an eye open. “What?”  
  
Ryos hung back, ready to duck. “Someone's accused Lucy of murdering someone and Juvia's gone to investigate it with a Rune Knight.”  
  
 "Dumbasses. Heartfilia hasn't murdered crap,” Gajeel said, rolled back over and covered his head with a pillow.

* * *  
  
“Open, Gate of the Lure! Andromeda!”  
  
Andromeda materialised as a short, plump woman, rosy-cheeked and soft around the edges. She turned towards the ticket office. “Madou? Madou!” Her voice rose to a roar. “ _Get out here_!”  
  
The ticketseller poked his head out around the door. “Sayra, my love, is that you?”  
  
“Don't you 'my love' me!” Andromeda shouted. “Get over here!”  
  
The ticketseller hurriedly obeyed. “Whatever it is, I'm very sorry-”  
  
As soon as his back was turned, Lucy darted out of hiding and slid through the window into the ticket office. The train station for the Judicial Palace kept records of everyone who arrived and departed that wasn't actually employed by the Council; Lucy knew that because they had all had to sign it when they arrived. The logbook, a huge tome bound in red leather, was lying on the desk. Lucy licked her fingers and flicked through to the last page. Loke was the last person to leave.  
  
 _Loke (no last name given, 'no last name needed' he says, pretentious twerp), mage of Fairy Tail, departed 7.42 a.m. for Marigold Town._  
  
Marigold? Lucy knew that one, because it wasn't far from Oak Town. It was where Blue Pegasus were based. Blue Pegasus would be the exact perfect guild for a good-looking womaniser, Lucy thought sourly.  
  
She dropped the book, hurriedly printed herself out a ticket and clambered back out of the window. Andromeda was screaming something about the ticketseller not respecting her.  
  
“I respect you! I respect you _so much_ ,” he said. “Please stop shouting at me!”  
  
“Gate of the Lure, close,” Lucy said. Andromeda melted. The ticketseller yelped. Lucy scrambled onto a bench, onto a bin and hauled herself onto the roof of the waiting room a moment before he came back into the station. The ticketseller realised pretty quickly that someone had played a trick on him, and hunted around for them, but being obviously a straightforward young man without much imagination, he didn't check the roof. Lucy waited until the next train came in, waited again for the ticketseller to not be looking and got herself onto it as quickly as possible. She crouched under the window as the train pulled out.  
  
Was Loke really just dumping Fairy Tail – Lucy remembered what Siegrain had said, 'those old geezers are trying to pin as much blame on Fairy Tail as they can' – and trying to get into another guild? But why now? Why not wait until the trial was over? Was it to get away from Laxus? He seemed like the type who bore grudges. But if it was that, wouldn't the other Fairies know? And the Fairies were so clannish, of course they would back Loke up if Laxus was trying to get rid of him.  
  
Was it something to do with his weird thing about stellar spirit mages? Was it something to do with her?  
  
Lucy scowled and flopped into a seat. She reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”

* * *

The official lobby of the Judicial Palace was a great hall, filled with swarming people. Rune Knights, coming in to start the day shift or dragging themselves home after a long night; administrators in smart suits; brightly-coloured amphibians and the cleaning staff in drab grey uniforms. Nearly two thousand people worked in the Judicial Palace every day.  
  
Most of them hopped aside as Lahar strode towards the doorman. Employees would check in and out with special lacrima-tagged IDs. Anyone else who went out or came in had to be recorded in the book. The Judicial Palace's bureaucracy was like a spider's web; it was impossible to go anywhere without touching a thread. Every movement within the palace was tracked.  
  
“Loke, previously of Fairy Tail. Did he go out this morning?”  
  
“Let me check,” the doorman said, and reached for his notebook. “Hmm. Yes. Loke of Fairy Tail, left at twenty past seven this morning. Said he was going out for a cigarette. Hasn't come back yet.”  
  
“Why did you not report it?” Lahar said sharply.  
  
The doorman shrugged. “Maybe he had a lot of cigarettes to get through. Maybe he's admiring the scenery? It's nine in the morning, lieutenant, relax a little.”  
  
“The security of the Judicial Palace is a serious matter,” Lahar snapped. “Regardless of the time of day, it's your responsibility to keep track of visitors and report suspicious activity! Either do your job, or be court-martialled!”  
  
The doorman blanched.  
  
“So strict!” Juvia gasped, and swooned onto the floor, hearts bursting from her eyes.  
  
Lahar looked around, and then down. “Ms Lockser?” He frowned. “Are you all right?”  
  
“Juvia tripped,” Juvia said. Lahar helped her to her feet.  
  
“Lucy was definitely not doing anything evil at twenty past seven! We were eating breakfast,” Juvia said. “It was toast and melon.”  
  
“Can anyone else verify that? Miss Heartfilia's presence, not the menu.”  
  
Juvia thought. “Lucy's spirit Serpens?”  
  
“Excluding Miss Heartfilia's own property,” Lahar said.  
  
Juvia thought harder, and brightened up. “Oh! The man who brought the room service!”  
  
“That should do,” Lahar said.  
  
Juvia clasped her hands together. “So Lucy is not guilty of murder?”  
  
“Miss Heartfilia was never actually charged with murder,” Lahar said, which Juvia took as a yes. Hurray! “The most reasonable assumption, then, would be that Mr Loke is merely jumping ship. Still, it is not permitted to leave a trial for which you are a witness without proper authorisation!”  
  
“What an awful thing to do!” Juvia agreed fervently.  
  
“Mr Loke will have to be tracked down,” Lahar said.  
  
“Yes! Arrest him!” Juvia said, and clapped her hands. “Send him to prison forever! May Juvia still help?”

* * *  
  
Someone rapped on Gajeel's door. He hauled himself out of bed, grabbed the mug of coffee (with a sprinkle of iron filings) that Ryos had left on the nightstand, drained it and slouched to the door. Ryos had his nose in a book, as usual. Weird little brat. _His_ weird little brat, though.  
  
When Gajeel opened the door, there was a pair of Rune Knights on the other side.  
  
“Gajeel Redfox? You're wanted for testimony,” one of them said. “You can get dressed first, if you like.”  
  
Whatever, he had pants on, and he could knock this testimony crap out in ten minutes. He reached to shut the door behind him, and stopped.  
  
Wait. Lockser'd eloped with a Rune Knight or something. And Ashley'd killed someone? Gajeel didn't really remember anything he heard before ten in the morning. Good for Ashley, anyway. But Lockser probably wasn't gonna be back to testify any time soon, and she'd be in trouble if they showed up to take her to her thing and she wasn't there.  
  
He'd have to stall.  
  
“Nooo,” he said. “Nope. I'm going for a drink instead.”

* * *

“Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”  
  
Taurus appeared, sitting opposite Lucy, and wriggled until his axe wasn't digging into his back. His horns scraped the ceiling. “Miss Lucy! Your body just gets more and more incredible every-”  
  
“I know,” Lucy cut him off. Taurus looked at her face. He shut up. “You know that guy, don't you? I can't believe I didn't realise!”  
  
“No!” Taurus said. “I never saw him before in my life! Never! Loke? Loke who?”  
  
“How do you know his name, then?” Lucy said.  
  
Taurus made an 'oops' face.  
  
“What's his thing about stellar spirit mages?” Lucy said. If he was setting her up, that would have to be why.  
  
“I can't just tell you what happened. It would be _moo_ st rude!” Taurus said. “ _Moo_ de!”  
  
“Taurus, I have been chased out of the Judicial Palace, I have had to jump out of a window, this guy might be framing me for his murder,” Lucy said. “Tell me anything you can. Please.”  
  
Taurus mooed plaintively. “The stellar spirit mage who caused the trouble was Karen... Lily-something. From Blue Pegasus.” He brightened up and added “ _Great_ body...”  
  
Karen Lilica? Lucy knew about her, she'd been a famous mage who died on a mission a few years ago. She'd never held Taurus's key, though. Lucy had seen a record of his owners going back fifty years. He'd never belonged to anyone from Blue Pegasus. How could Taurus have met Loke?  
  
“You can't tell me how you met Loke?”  
  
Taurus shook his head.  
  
Lucy wriggled deeper into her seat, and thought. Who would a zodiac key really get to-  
  
Light dawned. Her mouth opened and closed again. “Okay. I got it,” she said. “Is he really dying?”  
  
Taurus nodded.  
  
“Are you upset about that? All of you, I mean?”  
  
Taurus nodded, but more slowly.  
  
“So what can I do about it?” Lucy said.  
  
“You can't,” Taurus said.


	17. Aftermath II

“Excuse Juvia!”  
  
The ticketseller looked up and frowned. “What does that even mean?”  
  
“We are looking for a mage who has recently left the Judicial Palace. His name is Loke. He has orange hair and bad manners,” Juvia said. “Immediately consult your logbook and tell us where he has gone!”  
  
The ticketseller looked past her and spotted Lahar, standing back and watching Juvia with sudden surprised interest. He got his logbook. “Loke? Fairy Tail mage? Left at seven-forty-two for Marigold Town.”  
  
“Did anyone leave after him?”   
  
“Nobody without an ID. A couple legal secretaries came in to visit the library.”  
  
So Lucy had not been there? Or Lucy had gone on the train without buying a ticket. Oh dear. Juvia hoped very much Lieutenant Lahar would not find out about that!  
  
“Did Mr Loke show you his authorisation papers when you sold him his ticket?” Lahar asked.  
  
The ticketseller looked at Lahar, considered lying and then realised Lahar already knew the answer. “...no?” He rallied. “He already got out the main doors! How would he do that without the right papers?”  
  
Lahar turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose. None of his colleagues were meeting his own neurotically high standards today.  
  
“You are terrible,” Juvia said sternly to the ticketseller, “and you should be court-martialled.” The ticketseller wilted like a sad flower. Juvia looked hopefully at Lahar to see if that cheered him up. It did, a little. He sighed and switched his attention back to the ticketseller.  
  
“Have you seen anything of interest this morning?”  
  
“No! Nothing suspicious has occurred,” the ticketseller said. “Everything has been fine and normal. Dandy, even.”  
  
“Good,” Lahar said. “We will be travelling to Marigold Town. Please arrange this.”  
  
'We?' That included Juvia! Juvia did a happy little dance, and then stopped quickly when Lahar turned to her. “Is there anyone you would like to notify before leaving? A spouse, a non-gender-specific romantic partner?”  
  
“No, Juvia does not have those things,” Juvia said, and poked her fingers together. Why was he asking? Was it because he secretly despised her and planned to kill them to make her unhappy?! Juvia drooped.

* * *

There was a loud scuffling from outside. The nine councillors looked up. Belno put away her crossword and Leiji stashed his newspaper under his seat. Siegrain and Ultear continued playing Hangman. The others regarded them with stern disdain. This had no effect whatsoever.  
  
The huge double doors of the court room slammed back and Gajeel was shoved in by a dozen Rune Knights. They had him trapped in a containment sphere, and however much he yelled and hit out, the bubble bent but didn't break. The Rune Knights pushed him into the witness box and hurriedly activated the wards. Walls of dim green light stretched from the floor to the ceiling all around the witness box.  
  
He didn't stand a chance. Siegrain and Ultear had spent long enough playing around with the dock, and it took both of _them_ a little over two minutes to escape. Bloody kids, always poking around trying to find holes in their defenses.  
  
“I had a beer!” Gajeel shouted after the departing Rune Knights. “Where's my beer?” He spun around and glared at the Council. “What do you lot want?”  
  
“Thank you for coming,” Org said. The irony sailed gracefully over Gajeel's head. “It is the request of this court that you describe the events of the war between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail in your own words.”  
  
“What do you mean, my own words?” Gajeel demanded. “Do you expect me to make up a language to talk about it in?”  
  
Org's left eyelid twitched. “No, that means without copying what someone else has said. The court has heard accounts of the conflict from several witnesses already. We would like to hear your own version of events.”  
  
“Right,” Gajeel said, and scratched the back of his neck. “Well, Lockser told me the Fairies'd grabbed Ashley on Tuesday night. Tuesday morning I got up, I ate some toast and a chunk of I-beam, I brushed my teeth-”  
  
The councillors stared.  
  
“Wait, maybe I brushed my teeth before I ate breakfast,” Gajeel said.

* * *

“Good afternoon, Master Bob,” Lahar said. “We're looking for a mage named Loke and have reason to think he may have come here. Have you seen him?”  
  
Juvia hung back and looked around. This was a very... polished guild hall. Showy. Shiny parquet floor, shiny hardwood surfaces, vases of flowers and leather sofas with skinny stylish mages lounging on them. Master Bob, in contrast, was a plump old bald man in pink shorts, cleaning out a glass behind the bar. “Loke? Hmmm... no, he's visited here before, but not recently. Sorry I can't be more help. Shall I tell him you were here, if he comes by?”  
  
“That won't be necessary,” Lahar said.  
  
“Huh? Wouldn't Loke have gone to Karen's grave? That's where he usually goes,” someone said. Lahar and Juvia both looked around. A brown-skinned girl with huge sky-blue eyes and star patterns all over her kimono had flopped down over the bar. “Master, can I get a glass of water? My throat's all dry from singing.”  
  
“Who was Karen?” said Lahar.  
  
“Karen Lilica, of course,” the girl said, and frowned. “She died a few years ago. There was an investigation and everything.”  
  
“Urania, honey, drink your water,” Master Bob said, and shoved a glass at her face.  
  
“Where is her grave located?” Juvia said.  
  
“Oh, dear! That's completely slipped my mind,” Master Bob said.  
  
“It's on the sticky-out bit by the waterfall, Master,” Urania said, bemused. “If you go left out of the door, and down the street with the cars in, then you'll start seeing signs for the waterfall. Or you could ask anyone. Everyone knows where the waterfall is!”  
  
“Thank you very much,” Lahar said.

"Maybe Loke killed Miss Lilica, and now he's gone to her grave to kill himself in repentance," Juvia said.

"That's theoretically possible," Lahar said politely, and they left.

Once the door had closed behind them, Master Bob shot Urania a look. She yelped and fell backwards off her stool.  
  
“Really,” he said, exasperated. “Let the poor boy go in peace.”

* * *

Lucy had to ask half a dozen people for directions to Karen Lilica's grave before she found someone who said “Oh, that's by the waterfall! Don't you know where the waterfall is?”  
  
“No. Point me at the waterfall,” Lucy said. It would have been easier if she could have summoned Misha and Boo to track him out of the station, but she was tired already (she shouldn't have spent so long arguing with Taurus) and she didn't know what she was getting into. She didn't really expect to find Loke standing griefstruck in front of Karen Lilica's grave, but if there was some sort of clue -  
  
He was totally standing griefstruck in front of Karen Lilica's grave. Before him, a vast sheet of water crashed to the rocks below. The wind flung fine spray into Lucy's face.  
  
“Leo!” Lucy shouted, and the Lion of the Zodiac looked around. His eyes went huge and alarmed when he saw her, but after a moment he remembered he was dead already. He smiled wryly.  
  
“You're something, to be able to figure out my secret.”  
  
“I'm a stellar spirit mage who's made many contracts with all sorts of spirits. Also, it was an anagram, you aren't all that subtle,” Lucy said. “Karen Lilica was your summoner, wasn't she?”  
  
“She was my master,” Loke confirmed sadly.  
  
“Then what went wrong?” Lucy said. “When a summoner dies, it breaks all their contracts and their spirits go back to the stellar spirit world. Karen's dead. Why are you still here when it's _killing you_? Spirits can't survive that long in the human world!”  
  
Loke's faint wry smile hadn't faded. “I've lasted three years. That's better than I expected.”  
  
“Three years! I wouldn't have believed anyone could last one!”  
  
“Are you impressed?” The shadow of a grin flickered across his face. “But I'm done now. I can't hold up any longer.”  
  
“Why are you being so casual about this?” Lucy demanded. “Don't you care that you're dying? The rest of my spirits are mourning for you, you know!”  
  
Loke winced. “I'm sorry about that. Really I am. I never meant to hurt any of them. But there's nothing that can be done about it.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“I've been exiled. Forever,” Loke said. “I broke the sacred bond between a summoner and their spirits.” He lifted his chin. “It was me who killed Karen.”

For a moment, Lucy thought she hadn't heard him right, over the thunder of the waterfall. “ _You_ killed her?"  
  
“A spirit who kills their summoner can't ever be allowed back into the spirit world,” Loke said. He turned back to the grave. “So I'll just fade away, right here.”  
  
“No,” Lucy said. “I don't believe you. I don't believe you killed her.”  
  
Loke looked around. “You don't?”  
  
“No! I don't think my spirits would be so upset about you dying if you'd bludgeoned your summoner to death with a spade,” Lucy said. “What happened?”  
  
Loke turned back to the grave. “It was three years ago. Karen was one of Blue Pegasus's best mages, and she'd modelled for Weekly Sorceror; she had a pretty big fanclub. She held Aries's key as well as mine, and when she got tired of the guys following her around all the time, she'd call Aries out to entertain them instead. Or she'd summon Aries to make her clean her flat, or, or to use as a shield in a fight. Master Bob reprimanded her, and Karen blamed Aries for it. She meant to punish Aries by making her stay in the human world for a week.”  
  
Lucy gasped. Loke carried on.  
  
“So I came out and took Aries's place.” He sighed. “I was much stronger back then, and I could handle Karen's tantrums, but I was worried about Aries. I told Karen that I wanted her to give up Aries' key and mine, and that I was going to stay there until she did. She couldn't summon any other spirits with me drawing on her magic, but I used my own power to keep myself in the human world after her magic was exhausted. So I went to some ruins outside of Marigold Town and stayed there.”  
  
Lucy would have sat herself down in Blue Pegasus's bar, drunk lemonade and told everyone nasty things about Karen. Or hit her. Was Loke just too _nice_?  
  
“After ten days, Karen came and told me I was being stupid and I couldn't survive much longer. After a few weeks, she tried to convince me that she would stop hurting Aries if I gave up, but I didn't believe her, so she threw another tantrum and left.” He swallowed. “She didn't come back after that. After another couple of months, I decided to give her another chance – I thought she must have learned her lesson by then, and I thought that if she kept mistreating Aries then I could just step in again. That was when I went back into town, and heard that Karen had been killed. Supposedly, it was on a mission.”  
  
Lucy stared at him, speechless.  
  
“Because of me, Karen wasn't able to call out any other spirits,” Loke said. “And in that state she went out on a mission, and she was killed-” He slipped to his knees. He was panting for breath now, struggling to pull air into his lungs. Was his story true? It had to be, right? Her spirits were mourning him, and he had no reason to lie when he was already dying. “I killed her, or as good as killed her.”  
  
“No, you didn't!” Lucy snapped. “She killed herself! She didn't have to take that mission! She died because she was too pigheaded to give up your keys!”  
  
“No, it was my fault! She was my master, I should never have disobeyed her in the first place,” Loke said. “Lucy, stop! Just stop! I'm ready to-” He broke off and wheezed for air.  
  
“If you're so ready to die, then why are you still trying so hard to breathe?” Lucy demanded. She fell down on her knees next to him, caught hold of his shoulders and felt him shaking through his thick coat. “This can't happen! It isn't fair! I won't let you die!”  
  
“You can't do anything,” Loke said.  
  
“That's what Taurus told me,” Lucy said. “I don't like to be told I can't do things! If you can go back to the spirit world, you can recover your life force, right?”  
  
“I can't go back to the spirit world,” Loke said. “I killed my-”  
  
“Blah, blah, blah,” Lucy snapped. “Gate of the Lion, open!” She slammed power into the command, reaching out for the gate. It wasn't there. There was nothing to grab hold of.  
  
She would just have to try harder.  
  
“Lucy, stop!” Loke said. Lucy ignored the moron and yelled louder.  
  
“Gate of the Lion! Open!” Nothing happened.  
  
“Why are you doing this?” Loke shouted. “Why are you even trying?”  
  
“Because my spirits are sad!” Lucy screamed. “That's it! That's the only reason I need!” She dragged on her power again. Golden light flared up all around her. It felt as if she was on fire, her skin scorching with the heat of raw magic, burning up from the inside. “Gate of the Lion, open!”  
  
Nothing. Nothing!  
  
“Lucy, stop! You'll die if you keep doing this!” Loke shouted. His voice rose to a tortured howl. “Don't add to my sin!”  
  
“What sin? I won't accept that as a sin!” Lucy yelled. “If that's the rule in the spirit world, then that's wrong and I'll change it!” Her shout fell into silence. Everything stopped. The air went chokingly still around them as if they had stepped into the eye of a hurricane. For a moment, the waterfall hung frozen. Every drop of spray gleamed like a jewel in the light of the stars wheeling in the sudden darkness of the sky.  
  
Lucy clutched on to Loke. “What's happening?”  
  
“It can't be,” Loke said. “There's no way!”  
  
The waterfall roared up into the air and coalesced into a massive figure high above them.  
  
Its shoulders blocked out the sky. Its cloak was made from the blackness of space and the glitter of far-off stars. Supernova eyes glowed in the shadow of its helmet. Its moustache was titanic.  
  
“Who the hell is that?” Lucy gasped. It felt almost like the Outer God in Cypress Town, the same sense of a presence too old and vast to understand, only speaking through a human-shaped doll, as cold and faraway as starlight.  
  
“It's the Stellar Spirit King,” Loke breathed. “I can't believe he's here...”  
  
“Old friend,” the King boomed. “It is forbidden for we who have pledged ourselves to humans to kill the ones who bear our keys. It matters not whether it was direct or indirect. Leo the Lion, you are forbidden to return to the spirit world.”  
  
Lucy clambered to her feet, leaning on Loke's shoulders for support. “Hey! That's not fair!”  
  
“Don't, Lucy!” Loke protested.  
  
“Old friend. Human girl,” the King said. “The law shall not be changed.”  
  
Shall not? 'Shall not' wasn't 'cannot'.  
  
“It's a stupid law!” Lucy said. “Loke didn't do anything wrong. Karen killed herself! Loke never made her go out on a mission! He just didn't want her to be his master any more!”  
  
“Stellar spirits are sworn to loyal service,” the King said.  
  
“If you can't quit, that's not service! That's slavery!” Lucy yelled. “Don't try to dress it up with talking about loyalty! Some people don't deserve loyalty!” The King looked down on her impassively. “It's been three years! That's enough!”  
  
“I am pained by my old friend's suffering,” the King said, “but-”  
  
“'Old friend'?” Lucy cut in. “He's not your 'old friend'! He's your friend, right there!” She gestured sharply to where Loke was still kneeling on the ground. “And you're the only one killing him, so either stop doing it or stop pretending that you care!”  
  
“Lucy, stop!” Loke said. “I don't want to be forgiven! I want to repent for my sins!” His voice broke. “I just want to disappear!”  
  
“You can't!” Lucy yelled at him. “What good would that do? You disappearing wouldn't bring Karen back! It'll only make other people miserable!” She half-turned, one hand toward Loke and the other towards the stellar spirit king. “Look! Look!”  
  
She dragged on all the power she had left, the very last vestiges of her strength, the residual magic seeped into her flesh and bones, and reached out for her spirits. They answered her. Taurus and Cancer, and Aquarius scowling at the back; Andromeda, a brown-skinned girl in a white tunic, manacles on her wrists and Serpens wound loosely around her neck; Lyra, Crux and Horologium, Caelum, the Canes Venatici, even Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, all as solid at her back as a wall, or an army.  
  
Lucy could only hold them for a second. She fell forward onto the ground.  
  
“Lucy, what were you thinking? You could have died!” Loke said, clutching at her. “Are you all right?”  
  
Lucy ignored that. She pushed herself up onto her knees and screamed at the King.  
  
“If you're a spirit too, then you should understand!”  
  
There was a long moment of silence.  
  
“If so many of my friends would stand with you, perhaps the law is in error,” the King said. “Hmmm. Since you broke the law for the sake of your companion Aries, I will break the law for you. Leo, you are permitted to return to the stellar spirit world.”  
  
Lucy whooped. “Yes! You aren't so bad, moustache man!” A brief bright gleam in the King's face could have been a smile, or a shooting star.  
  
“But... I was ready to die,” Loke said weakly. The king was fading away. Normality was seeping back into the world. The last words the King spoke reverberated for a moment in the empty sky: “If you still want to repent for your sin, I order you to serve your new master faithfully, and live on.”  
  
“I told you I could do it!” Lucy said, and flung both arms around Loke's neck.  
  
“This doesn't absolve me,” Loke said, and for a moment Lucy thought how much more yelling will I have to do to convince this guy? before his arms tightened around her. “But... I feel like I can move forwards, now... Thank you, Lu-”  
  
“Both of you, lay down your weapons and cease any magical workings!”  
  
“Lucy! Lucy, are you all right? Have you been murdered?”  
  
Lucy and Loke both looked up. Two people were hurrying towards them. She recognised Juvia. The other-  
  
“Oh, crap, it's a Rune Knight!”  
  
“Nothing's wrong!” Lucy said, waving her hands wildly, as Juvia reached her. “I didn't kill anyone!”  
  
“We do appreciate that you haven't committed any murders, as far as we know,” the Rune Knight said. “However, you both left the Judicial Palace while on trial without authorisation, and you, Miss Heartfilia, are further guilty of brawling in the Palace, smashing a window and, since you're here and not in the records book at the Palace station, travelling on the railways without a valid ticket.”  
  
“My father does own most of the railways,” Lucy said. “Shouldn't there be some payoff for having to be related to him?”  
  
“...I have to go now,” Loke said, and melted.  
  
“And fleeing custody,” the lieutenant said, sounding intensely fed up.  
  
“That wasn't intentional! He just had to go back to the spirit world,” Lucy said. “I can explain!” She explained. Juvia gasped and oooohed at all the appropriate moments.  
  
“The investigation of Karen Lilica's death proved that her killer was another stellar spirit mage already known to the Rune Knights. There is no legal reason for anyone else to be considered responsible for her death,” the lieutenant said.  
  
“That's what I told him!” Lucy said. Another stellar spirit mage? Wow. All summoners were bitches except her and her mother, Lucy decided. Then she thought again. All summoners were bitches, except for her mother.  
  
“Still, as the Lion's owner, you are therefore responsible in law for his actions as well as your own,” the lieutenant said. Lucy blanched.  
  
“I- I am?”  
  
“You will therefore need to fill out two copies of form B-17, for leaving the Judicial Palace without authorisation while on trial, as well as one copy of F-9 for brawling on Council property, and one copy of F-24 for damaging council property. A fine can be levied for each of those misdemeanors, and you will need to fill out copies of B-26 and H-9 and write a formal letter of apology for each fine you wish to appeal.”  
  
“...can you write that down for me, please?” Lucy said. The lieutenant obligingly produced a notebook and pen.  
  
“Thank you very much for finding Lucy, Lieutenant,” Juvia said. “Juvia is very grateful, and Lucy is very sorry for distracting you from your work!” Juvia was practically glowing with adoration.  
  
“Yes. Very sorry,” Lucy said.  
  
“It's not a problem. My shift finished at nine,” the lieutenant said.  
  
“... are you saying you spent your free time chasing us halfway across Fiore?” Lucy said, in total disbelief.  
  
“Yes,” he said, and glanced at her over the tops of his glasses like he didn't quite see the issue. “It needed to be done, but it wasn't important enough to justify pulling anyone off the day shift when the Palace is hosting two guilds which have recently tried to destroy each other.” He went back to writing.  
  
Lahar was obviously.... very dedicated to... his work...  
  
Juvia gasped and clapped both hands to her mouth. A _love rival_?  
  
While the lieutenant was distracted, Lucy beckoned Juvia over. “Juvia. Juvia, get over here.”  
  
Juvia got over there. “What is it?”  
  
Lucy beckoned her down closer and spoke quietly, so Lahar wouldn't hear. “Did you know that you were supposed to testify today?”  
  
There was a momentary pause.  
  
“No. Juvia did not know that.”

* * *

“Shooby-do-bop!” Gajeel sang (for a given value of 'sang') and strummed the guitar. “Skibbedy-do-bop!”  
  
The councillors stared. Siegrain had propped his chin in his hands and was watching intently.  
  
“These iron, iron blues,” Gajeel sang, “listen to my song, but it's not like I want you to listen to it, shooby-dooby-do-bop-”  
  
“Okay,” Siegrain said to Ultear over Yajima's head, “I give up. I have no idea where he got the suit. Or the guitar. Or the hat.”  
  
Ultear just very slowly slumped over.

* * *

The awkward bit, it turned out, was explaining to the Fairies that you sort of owned one of their friends now.  
  
“You're a stellar spirit?” Natsu said.  
  
“Yup!”  
  
“You don't look like a spirit,” Natsu said.  
  
“I never noticed. Really,” the underpants mage said.  
  
“Shouldn't you be glowier?” Natsu poked Loke in the middle. “Or squishier?”  
  
“You're thinking of ghosts,” Lucy said. The Dragon Slayer was so loud. It was like his volume was accidentally set twice as high as most people's. Natsu perked up suddenly.  
  
“Happy! Aren't stars made of fire? Loke, can I try eating you?”  
  
“No!” Lucy and Erza said simultaneously.  
  
“Loke's the Lion stellar spirit, Leo,” Lucy said, to change the subject from whether or not he was delicious.  
  
“A lion?” the cat says. “That's like a grown-up cat, isn't it?”  
  
Loke squatted down and grinned at him. “That's right!”  
  
“It's really not,” Lucy says.  
  
“So what are you going to do now?” the underpants mage asked, with a sidelong glance at Lucy. “Can't you just carry on like you were?”  
  
“I'm afraid those days are over now that Lucy's my master,” Loke said. He got up and went to stand behind Lucy, arms around her shoulders, chin on the top of her head.“I'll just show up gallantly whenever she's in trouble, like a knight in shining armour.”  
  
“Lucky,” Natsu said. “I want a stellar spirit!”  
  
“What stellar spirit?”  
  
“A dragon, of course!”  
  
Lucy touched a finger to her lower lip. “There is a dragon constellation, actually. Draco. They're silver keys.”  
  
“Awesome!” Natsu said. “I want to get five! And I'll fight them all that once!” He punched the air.  
  
“Are you a monster?!” Lucy said. “You can't summon five spirits at once just to have a free-for-all!”  
  
“If you had five of me, we would have to fight each other for your love,” Loke told her seriously, and nuzzled into Lucy's cheek.  
  
Lucy put a hand on his face and shoved him away. “Down. Bad kitty.”  
  
Loke lurched a little. “All right. I'll go back home-” He grinned widely. “None of you be cruel to my pretty new summoner while I'm gone, all right?” He melted into starlight.  
  
The Fairy Tail mages smiled and waved as Loke disappeared, and then rounded on Lucy.  
  
“Aren't you best friends with the guy that put Loke in the hospital like a week ago?” said the underpants mage.  
  
“Well, Loke likes her,” Natsu said. “Where is Gajeel, anyway? I've been looking for him.”  
  
“What are your intentions with Loke?” Erza demanded.  
  
“I was planning to summon him when I need his help?” Lucy said. “My intentions are entirely honourable!” That sounded like she was asking permission to court him. “I don't care what else you think of me, but I'm not unkind to my spirits. I'll call any one you want out right now and you can ask them! … well the ones that can talk, anyway.” The Titania did not look remotely reassured. Lucy dug in her handbag. “Look, Loke gave me these-” She held up four tickets. “They're tickets to a hotel on the coast. He bought them a while ago for his girlfriends, but then the whole dying thing – anyway, he gave them to me, so do you want to come?” She offered two of the tickets to Erza. “Bring a friend! We can go swimming and ride the rollercoasters and you can decide whether or not to kill me in the night and steal my keys!” It was a really ritzy hotel. Maybe that would cheer Erza up about Councillor Siegrain's creepy thing for her hair.  
  
Erza took the tickets and looked at them. Her eyes widened a little. Natsu and the underpants mage looked over her shoulders, and goggled.  
  
“Holy crap!”  
  
“That place is so fancy!”  
  
Erza looked up. “All right. Let's go.”  
  
“... I think maybe we should wait until after the trial,” Lucy said.

* * *

The verdict was to be announced a few days later. The councillors had been deliberating on it for a whole day – actually, Lucy expected they would have decided within ten minutes and then bunked off for coffee, but they had waited a day to declare it. If they meant to disband a guild, and they thought there might be resistance, it would give them time for Rune Knights to occupy the guild hall and surround the judicial palace.  
  
The Fairies and a good chunk of Phantom Lord's First Division were loitering in the hall in front of the great court room, split almost exactly down the middle. Lucy was hurrying to join the crowd, hopping down the gallery above them while trying to straighten her socks and fix an adorable barrette straight in her hair. It was hard work being so cute.  
  
She looked up, and saw that Rune Knight that Juvia liked. She yelped and ducked behind a column. Lahar was standing by the railing of the gallery, posture ramrod-straight, hands clasped behind his back. He didn't stir. Lucy peeked out a little further around the side of the column. He continued to not move. Lucy considered the possibility that he was an illusion set up to keep the Fairies in line.  
  
“It's his lunch break, you know,” Councillor Siegrain murmured in her ear. Lucy screamed and leapt backwards eight feet, straight through Siegrain's thought projection, which flickered at the edges. Lahar looked up sharply.  
  
“ I think he might have spotted us,” Siegrain said. “Stay still! Rune Knights are like dinosaurs in a lot of ways. They can't see you if you don't move.” Lucy dived back behind the column instead. Lahar stared at them for a moment in disbelief and irritation, then schooled his expression into a calm mask and turned back to scrutinising the Fairies below.  
  
“You see?” Siegrain said. “We're completely invisible.”  
  
“I think he's just ignoring us, actually!” Lucy seethed. “Are you being ridiculous on purpose?”  
  
“Excuse me?” Siegrain said. “I happen to be a member of the Magic Council, held in high esteem by most people who are not also members of the Magic Council. I resent your allegations.”  
  
"Okay. Whatever," Lucy said. “Why is it important that it's Lahar's lunch break?”  
  
“What you are looking at here,” Siegrain informed her, “is a man who has chosen to spend his free time glaring at troublemakers. It's very good of him. My esteemed co-councillors and I feel very reassured knowing that should Fairy Tail suddenly blow up the entire building then Lahar will be there to tut at them disapprovingly. All I'm saying is, should you be eyeing Lieutenant Lahar with romantic interest, consider not doing so. Instead, could I suggest therapy?”  
  
“It's not for me!” Lucy snapped, and then she could have kicked herself.  
  
Siegrain cocked his head inquisitively on one side. “Who is it, then? - Oh! Juvia Lockser!”  
  
“What? How did you know that?!”  
  
“I was guessing,” Siegrain said. “That's very handy, isn't it?” That sounded like genuine approval. “When they get married she can keep all her old monogrammed handkerchiefs.”  
  
“Seriously? Those are your priorities?” Lucy said.  
  
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Siegrain asked. His expression was still totally serious. “It would be an honour to assist in the flourishing of young love. Also, I can't think of any way that we wouldn't all benefit from Lahar getting laid.”  
  
“Oh, no,” Lucy said, and started looking for an escape route. Siegrain was blocking her path one way, Lahar the other.  
  
“I have an idea,” Siegrain said. Lucy started looking for an escape route _harder_. She could jump over the railing. It wasn't that far a drop. Only thirty feet or so. Siegrain breezed past her and greeted Lahar with a cheery wave. “Good morning, lieutenant! Are you single currently?”  
  
Lucy settled instead for ducking back behind the pillar and pretending that she wasn't there.  
  
“I'm not currently in a relationship, no,” Lahar said. “Thank you for asking.” That was the tone of a man praying this conversation wouldn't take long.  
  
“And are you gay? …I'm not asking for myself, don't make that face.” Siegrain folded his arms and added petulantly, “You'd be lucky. Well?”  
  
“I'm not gay,” Lahar said, now in the tones of a man praying for death.  
  
“Oh, that's convenient,” Siegrain said. He leant over the railing and pointed. “I'd like to draw your attention to one of the young women down there. Do you see the one with the blue hair? Not the one the Iron Dragon is talking to, the one who just went red and looked away? She wants to jump your bones like they were a sexy trampoline.” Lucy peeked out a little further. Lahar was making the most unamused face in the history of the world. Siegrain steepled his fingers and inquired with scientific interest, “So. Why are you not hitting that?”  
  
“Her guild master is currently on trial and, by extension, so is she. It would be _highly_ unprofessional,” Lahar said.  
  
“...All right. I give up,” Siegrain said, and went back to Lucy. “I'm sorry,” he told her gravely. “There's nothing that can be done. He's terminally boring.” He patted Lucy's hand in the manner of a doctor consoling a bereaved patient and departed.  
  
Lucy looked at Lahar. Lahar looked at Lucy.  
  
“I am so, so sorry,” Lucy said, and ran away.  
  
There was a brief pause. Lucy reappeared. “So... after the trial, you might consider-”  
  
“Please go away,” Lahar said.  
  
Lucy obliged.  
  
The doors downstairs were opened and the crowd allowed to flood into the gallery. Jose, and Mirajane Strauss representing Master Makarov, both stood in the dock. An unobtrusive magical barrier gleamed between them and around the dock. Lucy still wriggled back closer to Juvia, and Juvia slipped her hand through Lucy's arm. Jose was still and silent, mouth slightly open, pupils dwindled down to pinpricks. He looked as if he'd been hit point-blank with a blast of magic. Mirajane waved happily up at the rest of the Fairies.  
  
The councillors filed in and took their seats. Lucy noticed that Siegrain looked straight up at the gallery. Looking for Erza?  
  
“The court has deliberated and will now pronounce its verdict,” one of the small froglike officials announced. Councillor Org stood.  
  
“Under the law, guild masters are permitted to imprison their mages for disciplinary, though not exceeding three hours without food and water or seventy-two hours with food and water, subject to further restrictions on temperature, access to facilities, acceptable noise levels, et cetera,” he said.  
  
There was an aghast “They are?” from a nearby Fairy. “That's inhuman!”  
  
“However, for a guild master to imprison one of their mages until said mage's parents pay for their release still constitutes kidnapping, and is generally frowned upon.”  
  
“Yesss,” Lucy hissed to Juvia.  
  
“Moreover, imprisoning Fairy Tail's diplomatic delegation and attacking Magnolia with a giant robot-” He shook his head.  
  
“That was childish behaviour,” said Belno.  
  
“Extremely foolhardy,” Yajima said.  
  
“And _completely awesome_ ,” said Siegrain. “Why do we not have a giant robot?”  
  
“Will you be quiet, Sieg!” Org snapped. Siegrain grinned. Ultear concealed a smile behind the sleeve of her robe. Org huffed and went on. “This court considers that you have shown reckless disregard for the laws governing interguild relations and, more importantly, the lives of civilians. Jose Porla, this court therefore finds you guilty of four counts of kidnapping, precipitation of interguild warfare, transforming your guild headquarters into a giant robot without planning permission and gross public endangerment. The sentence of this court is twelve years' imprisonment, the revocation of your place among the Ten Mage Saints and the total disbandment of your guild.” Jose jerked like he'd been electrocuted. Rune Knights were already closing in for containment. There was a faint ripple of glee through the Phantom mages – the ex-Phantom mages – at the sentence, but no dismay at hearing the guild would have to disband. How could it have lasted now, anyway? There was no saving some things.  
  
“Let's get out of here,” Lucy murmured to Juvia. She didn't want to be there if Jose exploded. Rune Knights were already moving in for containment.  
  
“It is also the judgement of this court,” Org said, speaking as if every word was bitter poison in his mouth, “that on the charges of attempted kidnapping and precipiting interguild warfare Makarov Dreyar is innocent.” His tone said very clearly that he knew Makarov was guilty of other charges, and that he wouldn't rest until he bloody well found out what they were. Still, the Fairies burst into wild cheering. Mira clapped her hands with delight.  
  
“However!” Org had to shout to be heard over the general exultation. Lucy stopped and looked back. “Regarding the actions of the Fairy Tail mage Natsu Dragneel-”  
  
The Fairies were startled into silence.  
  
“-this court finds him guilty of attempted kidnapping against a mage of another legal guild, and sentences him to three months' imprisonment.”  
  
The Fairies gasped. In the dock, Mirajane's hands flew to her mouth. Lucy blinked. Huh. So they were teaching the Fairies a lesson after all. Somewhere, Laxus burst out laughing. Lucy looked around sharply and drew closer to Juvia, but she couldn't see the yellow-haired psycho anywhere. She couldn't see Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer anywhere, either.  
  
“Poor Natsu!” someone said, close by.  
  
“That's so unfair!” Lucy thought that was Mickey Chickentiger.  
  
“He might be out in time for the Fantasia, with good behaviour,” said the blue-haired Fairy girl.  
  
“Good behaviour?” said the underpants mage. “We're never going to see him again.”  
  
Lucy caught Juvia's eye and jerked her head towards the door. They slid out. Gajeel stomped after them, with Ryos trailing behind like a baby duckling.  
  
“I'm glad that's over,” Lucy said.  
  
“Juvia concurs.”  
  
“What do you think everyone will do now?” Lucy asked. “Even if they hadn't just disbanded Phantom, the guild couldn't have survived that.” Another guild might have – a smaller guild, one where everyone could be at least acquainted with everyone else, and Lucy expected that the Fairies would just have pointed at the ceiling and appointed a new master by pulling a name out of a hat – but Phantom was just too big to hold together.  
  
“Juvia has heard that some subdivisions will go back to being individual guilds themselves, and that some mages of the First Division mean to gather together and form a guild of their own. Juvia wishes them good luck.”  
  
“What do you want to do?” Lucy said.  
  
Juvia looked down at her feet and said “Juvia is not sure she wants to join another guild.”  
  
“Me neither,” Lucy said. They said you had to be in a guild to be a full-fledged mage. Well, anyone who said that to Lucy now could eat a running chainsaw. “What about you, Gajeel?”  
  
“Don't care,” Gajeel said. “What are you guys doing? Didn't you elope with some guy, Lockser?”  
  
Juvia poked the tips of her fingers together. “No, Juvia has not eloped with anyone-”  
  
“What is going on there, anyway?” Lucy asked. “Is that a thing? Is that gonna be a thing?”  
  
Juvia poked the tips of her fingers together some more. “Juvia is not sure that there will be a thing...”  
  
“They agreed to get coffee this afternoon if she wasn't in prison,” Ryos said.  
  
“Ryos!” Juvia went bright red. “Juvia was trying to keep that a secret!”  
  
“Well, that's good, isn't it?” Gajeel said. “Getting coffee - like, getting coffee with another person - that's - God, I can't believe I'm having this conversation.”  
  
“Juvia is still not sure there can be a thing! Lahar is very lawful, and she has done so many unlawful things!” Juvia said. “How could a flower of love bloom between an officer of the law and a criminal? It could never happen! We were doomed before we even began!”  
  
“You got away with running off before your trial,” Lucy said.  
  
“Juvia has done so many wicked things besides that! Wicked, illegal things. If Lieutenant Lahar found out he would want to punish Juvia terribly,” Juvia said. She didn't actually sound too upset about that.  
  
“You know, if you bang him hard enough he'll probably stop caring,” Gajeel said.  
  
“Do you guys ever feel like we're terrible role models for Ryos?” Lucy asked.  
  
“It's okay," Ryos said. "I don't think of any of you as role models."

“Oi!” someone hollered. “Oiii! Gajeel!”  
  
They all looked around. Natsu Dragneel had managed to evade the Rune Knights and was haring towards them.  
  
“Gajeel! I've been looking for you!” he yelled. The blue cat fluttered onto his shoulder.  
  
“How hard were you looking, Salamander? I've been right here!” Gajeel gestured irritably at the hall.  
  
“What, you've been sitting in this room for a week? Boring!”  
  
“No, dumbass!” Gajeel shouted.  
  
“He's really noisy. I'm not sure how you kept missing him,” Lucy said.  
  
“It's not like I was avoiding you. Assbrain,” said Gajeel.  
  
“Whatever!” said Natsu. “Where'd you learn your Dragon Slayer magic?”  
  
“Same way everyone learns Dragon Slayer magic, Salamander! Off of a dragon!”  
  
“Wait. Why would dragons teach people that?” Lucy said aside to Juvia.  
  
Juvia pursed her lips and said “Dragon Slayers do not seem to be very... sensible. Juvia wonders if that could be inherited.” Ryos was watching Gajeel and Natsu intently.  
  
“What dragon?” Natsu demanded.  
  
“Metalicana. The steel dragon,” Gajeel said.  
  
“How is he?”  
  
Gajeel scowled. “I dunno.”  
  
“Hey! I said, how is he?” Natsu shoved his face into Gajeel's. Gajeel did the same, with a snarl. Their foreheads clunked together.  
  
“Ow! I said I dunno, trash!” Gajeel straightened up and rubbed his forehead. “He just shoved off one day! Didn't say anything.”  
  
Natsu started.  
  
“He was an asshole anyway. It's not like I'd miss him,” Gajeel said.  
  
“Was that July seventh, seven years ago?”  
  
Gajeel looked up, shock written all over his face. “How'd you know that? Do you know where Metalicana is?”  
  
“How would I know that, stupid? I'm looking for Igneel! The fire dragon!” So all Dragon Slayers were raised by giant deadbeat lizards? That explained a lot. Natsu was thinking. It looked like hard work. “Hey, why are there so many sevens?”  
  
“How would I know? I'm not a mathematician!” Gajeel snapped.  
  
There was a yell from upstairs. “There he is! Move in!” Juvia and Lucy took several hurried steps away from the fugitive from justice. Ryos didn't move. Lucy pulled him away by the collar.  
  
“Oh, man,” Natsu said, like being sent to prison was a minor inconvenience, and pointed at Gajeel. “You better tell me if you hear anything about Igneel! And I want a rematch when I get out of jail!”  
  
“Who needs a rematch?” Gajeel demanded. “We settled it. You suck, Salamander!”  
  
“No way!” Natsu objected. “I'm gonna bulk up in prison and get crazy muscles! That's what you do in prison, right Happy?” The blue cat was clinging to Natsu's neck and wailing. “And I can get a tattoo and learn how to make a shank!” Natsu said. “Don't worry, Happy! You heard the old man, right? We messed up, so we gotta fix it!”  
  
The Rune Knights descended and hauled him away.  
  
“Happy! Stay with Levy!” Natsu yelled over his shoulder. “And Gajeel, I'm gonna kick your ass next time! That's a promise!”  
  
A faint involuntary smile crept over Lucy's face. Honestly. They were all crazy.  
  
She turned away and linked hands with Juvia. “Okay, here's the plan.”  
  
They all looked at her.  
  
“First Juvia's getting coffee, and then we're going on holiday. Gajeel, are you coming? You'll have to get yourself a ticket.”  
  
“I've got nothing else to do,” Gajeel grunted.  
  
“Good. That's settled, then,” Lucy said. She was looking forward to it. A nice relaxing holiday where nothing went wrong.  
  
After that... maybe they could track down whoever killed Karen Lilica, get Aries's key back and collect the bounty. Juvia's lieutenant had said it was another stellar spirit mage. That meant Lucy had bait. If she was sort-of in-laws with the Fairies now she might have to drop in on them occasionally, but she would just have to deal with that.  
  
Being an independent mage sounded nice. It sounded... free. There would be nobody to decide her path for her. It sounded just like what she'd always wanted.


	18. Dredging Up Old Drama

Lucy rapped on the door. “Erza? Hey, Erza! Are you awake?”  
  
The lock clicked and the door swung open. Erza Scarlet stood on the other side, dressed in her regular full armour. Lucy'd thought she'd gone to bask in the last of the evening sunshine. In full armour? Fairies were weird.  
  
“We found a casino in the basement. Want to come check it out?”  
  
“I'm not really fond of gambling,” Erza said.  
  
Was that a no? Was that a 'shove off'? “Gray's already down there playing,” Lucy said.  
  
“Hmm,” Erza said, and then took a step back and spun. Her armour glowed and vaporised, replaced by a long rose-patterned dress cut to the thigh on one side, and long white gloves like a star in an old black-and-white movie. Her hair was swept up loosely, leaving two long locks to frame her face. Erza touched her fingers to her hair and smiled faintly. “This should do, right?”  
  
“...if you're trying to completely overshadow the rest of us, sure!” Lucy said, and laughed. “Dressing casual would have been fine!”  
  
“Since I'm coming, it would be an insult to the casino if I wasn't playing to win,” Erza said.  
  
“Yeah, yeah! Let's go!” They headed for the steps.  
  
It had been a good day. They'd hung out on the beach, and played volleyball guyys versus girls, which - after the girls had beaten them - the guys agreed was deeply unfair because Ryos should only count as half a guy.  
  
Lucy and Juvia hadn't been aware that Ryos was coming. Gajeel had shown up at the station with a massive wheeled suitcase, so Gray and Lucy had immediately both made jokes about the size of his wardrobe. Gajeel had made rude gestures at them and tossed the suitcase into the overhead luggage rack. It wasn't until they'd checked in and gone to their rooms that Gajeel had unzipped his suitcase and hauled Ryos out by the scruff of the neck.  
  
“...Gajeel,” said Juvia.  
  
“What? Saved buying him a ticket,” Gajeel said.  
  
“Has he been in there the whole time?” Lucy said.  
  
Gajeel made an annoyed gesture like, did you see me stick him in there?  
  
“Honestly, Gajeel!” Lucy said. “You could have just made him climb in the suitcase when we got to the resort!”  
  
“...oh yeah, that'd have worked,” Gajeel said.  
  
“Ryos's parents are going to sue you one day and I'm not going to testify in your favour,” Lucy told him.  
  
“Ryos's parents are corpses, they aren't suing crap,” Gajeel said, as Ryos disappeared into the bathroom to fix his hair.  
  
“Oh. Dammit,” Lucy said. “Well, stop smuggling orphans anyway! Or at least do it better!”  
  
Where the hotel rooms were neat and sophisticated, deep purple fabrics and wood panelling, the casino was all noise and glitter; neon stars on the ceiling, the flashing lights and jangling of the slot machines, shrieking from the amusement park next door. Glitter showered the gamblers at random from overhead pipes, and there were howls of laughter as people ran to get either out of the spray or under it. The brilliant lights seemed to create a perpetual noon; it didn't seem like that much later when Lucy asked absently "Hey, what time is it?" and the dealer answered "Three in the morning."

"Oh," Lucy said. Juvia and Erza both looked over at her. "Oh well." Lucy said. "I've got nothing to get up for tomorrow!" Erza was raking in the winnings. They could wait until her luck turned, right? Gajeel was loitering by the bar, with Ryos trailing after him as usual. Ryos was yawning and propping himself up on a barstool. Gray was playing the slots. The first wheel stopped on a seven, and then the second – Gray clenched his fists as the last wheel spun. “Come on!”  
  
“Hey, boy,” someone drawled. “You bet the shirt off your back?”  
  
Gray looked down and realised that he'd lost his shirt, just as the last wheel clicked to a stop on a lemon. He scowled.  
  
“What's it to you?” He swivelled on his seat, and his eyes widened. “Are you a Lego man?”  
  
“Don't you know that the clothes maketh the man?” the square guy asked. He was sitting opposite, smoking a cigar. “Dandy men keep all their clothes on at all times. _At all times_.”  
  
“Are you security, or what?” Gray demanded. “What do you want?”  
  
“I want to give you some advice, boy,” the square guy said. He kicked off from the floor so that his seat spun around, so that he became a blur with a whipping scarf. “There are two paths a man can take,” the blur said.  
  
“What the hell?” Gray growled.  
  
“He can live in a dandy fashion, or-” The square guy bounded off the chair and lunged. Gray was taken by surprise, and they both crashed to the floor. Gray was pinned down by the square guy's weight. “What the hell! Ice-Make-”  
  
The square guy shoved a gun into Gray's mouth.  
  
“-or he can just lay down and die,” the square man finished.  
  
Around them, people scattered, shouting in panic. “Look out! He's got a gun!”  
  
Over by the bar, Gajeel didn't hear the shouting. He was doing some shouting of his own.  
  
“He's old enough to be in a casino, right? Give him a beer!”  
  
“No. There is no way that kid's over fifteen,” the bartender said. “ _You_ can have a beer. _You_ can buy all the beer you want. The kid, no.”  
  
“Can I just have a juice?” Ryos said.  
  
“No! Juice is for girls and sissies,” Gajeel said, and banged one fist on the bar. “Give him one of those drinks that's on fire!”  
  
“Excuse me,” someone said. A bouncer? Gajeel wheeled about, snarling. A massive man loomed behind them, wearing a turban and a prosthetic metal jaw. He was built like an ogre, hands as big as Aria's and with shoulders so broad he'd have a hell of time fitting through doorways. Gajeel wasn't bothered.  
  
“What the hell do you want?”  
  
“You're with Erza Scarlet, yes?”  
  
“Yeah. So?”  
  
“Where is she?”  
  
Gajeel scowled. “Who wants to know?”  
  
“An old friend,” the asshole said. “Where is she?”  
  
“How should I know?” Gajeel said. “She's not exactly hard to spot. Go look for her!”  
  
The line of the asshole's metal jaw shifted. Gajeel spread his hands in a challenge.  
  
“You want a fight, plate-face? Come on!”  
  
Instead, the plate-face just touched two fingers to his head. “Ah. You've found her?”

A minute earlier, everything had still been going great.  
  
“Wow, Erza!” Lucy said, as Erza scooped another pile of chips towards herself. Juvia was saucer-eyed. A group of men who'd gathered around to admire Erza in her rose-patterned dress were staring in awe.  
  
“I feel lucky today,” Erza said, with a pleased flick of her hair, as the dealer stepped away and another one took his place. “I don't think I'll lose, no matter who I'm up against.”  
  
“Is that so?” the new dealer said, and fanned out his pack of cards. “Why don't we play a special game, then? But not for chips-”  
  
He flicked out five cards onto the table in front of Erza, and she looked down in interest and surprise. The cards were all lettered. D-E-A-T-H.  
  
“Let's bet our lives,” said the dealer. “Erza. _Sis_.”  
  
Erza looked up. Her eyes went huge. “...Sho.” The colour drained out of her face.  
  
What? The dealer – a young guy, brown skin, spiky blonde hair – just grinned like a loon. One eye drooped almost closed and the other opened so wide the white showed all around the iris. Lucy looked at Juvia and mouthed _do you know who_ -  
  
Juvia shook her head.  
  
“It's been a long time, right, sis?”  
  
What the hell was going on?  
  
Erza smiled like she had just realised she ought to be smiling. “You were... safe?”  
  
“Safe?” the whackjob repeated, raising an eyebrow. Erza flinched back.  
  
“Oh – no, no, I-”  
  
First Siegrain, now this guy – Sho? Lucy decided that Erza just attracted weirdos.  
  
Meanwhile, the massive guy by the bar was still talking to himself.  
  
“He a nutter?” Gajeel said.  
  
“I think it's telepathy,” said Ryos.  
  
“Then, do you mind if I tidy things up on my end?” the massive guy asked. Gajeel looked around.  
  
“What's he gonna tidy up?” The place looked pretty spotless.  
  
“Us,” Ryos said, just as the plate-face cast a spell.  
  
“Dark Moment!”  
  
Everything was swallowed up in blackness. All the neon lights and slot machines went out. People began to scream. Gajeel swore. “Ryos, get down!” He lashed out wildly with his metal bars and hit nothing. “Get back here, you piece of trash!” He could still smell the guy; he had to be around here somewhere! He whirled around and hit out. Bottles shattered. The wood of the bar splintered. “Where are you?”  
  
Two fingers jabbed into the back of his head. “Dark Burst!”  
  
Gray heard the explosion and yelled around the gun barrel jabbed into his mouth. “Nighty-night, boy,” the square guy said, and pulled the trigger.  
  
Lucy had shrieked when the lights went out, and then Juvia had hauled her bodily off her seat and pulled her away from the table where Sho stood. They all heard the blast and the gunshot. “What was that?” Lucy gasped. “What's going on?”  
  
The lights came back on. Everybody was gone. The people playing the slot machines, the dealer at the other table, the men who had been watching Erza play. Everyone.  
  
“Sho?” Erza looked around. He was standing behind them. He spread out his hands, and cards fluttered to the floor. On them, little figures moved.  
  
“Are those people in the cards?” Juvia said, and Lucy goggled.  
  
“He's trapped people inside cards?” The tiny struggling figures cried out in thin whispering voices that blurred together – 'what is this?' 'what happened?' and 'someone please help us!' Lucy clutched Juvia's arm tighter and put her hand to the pouch on her belt that held her keys.  
  
Erza hadn't drawn a sword, though. Wouldn't Erza arm herself if they were in danger? What was going on? Was this a joke of some kind?  
  
Erza's voice was small and wavering. “Sho, what are you-”  
  
“Erza, who is this man?” Juvia asked, and took a step forward. “Juvia and Lucy would like to know what is-”  
  
“Meow!” Something whipped around Lucy and Juvia. It sliced smoothly through Juvia's water body and locked tight around Lucy.  
  
“Juvia!”  
  
Juvia whirled round as Lucy was dragged backwards and yanked up onto her tiptoes. She couldn't see who had her. The cord was tight around her throat and ribcage. She could barely breathe.  
  
“Millianna!” Erza said, startled, and Juvia screamed like a banshee.  
  
“Let Lucy go! Water Slicer!”  
  
“Juvia, no!” Erza shouted, and whoever was holding Lucy shoved Lucy in front of themselves like a shield. Lucy screamed. Juvia managed to cancel the spell just in time, so when the water arcs crashed into Lucy and her attacker they didn't have the razor edges that would have cut them both in half.  
  
They still hit hard, though. Lucy was flung backwards into the card table, and her attacker tumbled back off it with a squawk. Juvia grabbed Lucy, slashed the bindings away and pushed Lucy behind her. She was ready for a fight.  
  
“Juvia, stop! They're my friends!” Erza said. She still wasn't doing anything. Why wasn't she doing anything? If they were in danger, surely Erza wouldn't just stand there?  
  
“If they are Erza's friends, Erza should tell them that if they try to attack Lucy again then Juvia will _cut them into little pieces_!”  
  
“She will. Seriously,” Lucy said.  
  
“Your friends, sis?” Sho demanded. “Are we your friends? We thought we were your friends, until you betrayed us!”  
  
Erza flinched back again and raised both hands as if she was trying to shield herself.  
  
Betrayed? Oh. This was some old drama of Erza's, wasn't it? Some stupid melodramatic bullshit. Lucy was actually angry, now, that they'd just got dragged into Erza's interpersonal drama.  
  
Actually, were they other Fairies? Lucy didn't remember seeing them before, but... inconveniencing everyone, causing explosions in public places, yelling about friendship? Yeah. Definitely Fairies.  
  
She stood up. “Juvia, we should get out of here.”  
  
“Lucy, please don't go,” Erza said. Lucy stopped, and looked around. Erza hadn't turned her head. She was watching Sho, with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and her hands clenched so hard her knuckles were white.  
  
“Meow,” someone said quietly. The girl who'd attacked Lucy had poked her head up over the top of the card table. She had cat ears. Erza's gaze flicked towards her, and she turned a little as if she didn't want to take her eyes off either of them.  
  
Was she afraid?  
  
That couldn't be right. She was Erza Titania. She was like, Gajeel's level. How could she possibly be scared of them? One of them was a catgirl! And if she was afraid, why didn't she just draw a sword?  
  
“Don't ruffle her feathers too much, Sho,” someone else said. “Dandy men know how to maintain their composure.” A polygonal man materialised next to the catgirl. “You certainly turned into a looker, Erza!”  
  
“Wally?” Erza said. “Is that you?”  
  
The square guy tipped his hat to her. “Not that it would matter if you hadn't recognised me. Compared to the Mad Dog Wally from the old days, I'm much more _well-rounded_ now.”  
  
“All of you – you can all use magic?” Erza said.  
  
Huh. Not Fairies, then.  
  
“Don't be surprised,” another voice said. How many of them were there? A massive guy in a turban appeared out of nowhere, crouching down, one shovel-sized hand flat to the floor. “Anyone would be able to use magic, if that guy got his hands on them.”  
  
What were they talking about? What was going on? Should they jump in? Erza still wasn't doing anything. Did they want to fight the Titania's battles for her?  
  
“Erza, who are these guys?”  
  
“They're old friends of mine,” Erza said. “From before I joined Fairy Tail.” She'd clearly just gone from one pack of loons to the next, then. “What are you all doing here?”  
  
“We came to bring you back,” said the square guy.  
  
“Meow!” the catgirl agreed cheerfully.  
  
“We're all going home, sis,” Sho said.  
  
The one in the turban just stared like a creeper.  
  
“No,” Erza said. She shook her head jerkily. “No. I don't want to-”  
  
Three of her old friends exchanged exasperated looks. The guy in the turban continued staring like a creeper. Lucy waited. Erza would draw a sword, any second now, if they were seriously trying to kidnap her then _of course_ she would-  
  
“We figured you'd be pigheaded about it,” the square guy said, and then he shot Erza in the back. Erza jerked, and fell.  
  
“Erza!” Lucy shouted in horror. “Juvia, we have to-” And then something hit her on the side of the head, and everything went black.  
  
* * *

Lucy woke up with a pounding headache and Juvia pouring water onto her face. She coughed and sputtered. “Wha'? Wha' happened?”  
  
“The polygonal man shot Lucy,” Juvia said. “And then the big man cast his darkness magic, and they escaped with Erza.” She clasped her hands together. “Juvia was so worried about Lucy!”  
  
“You let them take Erza!” Gray snarled. “You let them walk out with Erza!”  
  
“Juvia was protecting her friend!” Juvia snapped. “Juvia cannot protect Gray's friends as well! Perhaps _Gray_ should do that!”  
  
“Fuckin' told, Fullbuster,” Gajeel said. Gray bristled.  
  
“Stop it! Stop!” Lucy said. Her three all shut up and looked at her. Gray opened his mouth to snap something else. “Seriously, stop,” Lucy said, rolled over and buried her head in her arms. “I don't believe this.”  
  
Who would want to kidnap Erza? Who would risk kidnapping _Erza_? The only thing Lucy could think of was that Councillor Creepy Hair-Fondler had stolen her away to be his evil queen, and that suggested that Juvia's imagination was contagious.  
  
“We need to go get her back,” she said.  
  
“Juvia does not think so. Juvia believes that Erza is capable of rescuing herself, if she chooses to.”  
  
“I think all we're _obliged_ to do is call law enforcement,” Ryos said.  
  
“Yeah,” Gajeel agreed, glancing at the other two. “It's Scarlet's problem. Scarlet can deal.”  
  
“For all we know they're taking her to a surprise party,” Ryos said.  
  
“Surprise! We shot you in the back!” said Lucy. She sat up and turned to Juvia. “I'm trying to get the Fairies to trust me with one of their mages already. I can't let another one get kidnapped from right under my nose! Plus, foiling kidnap attempts is probably really impressive specifically to people who work in law enforcement. And have names that start with L.”  
  
“How is that relevant?” Gray said. Juvia covered her mouth with both hands. She could have been wavering or, alternatively, the mention of Lieutenant Lahar had sent her into a lovestruck funk.

Lucy turned to Gajeel. “Seriously, they grabbed her when we were standing right there! We can't let them get away with that! Are you telling me you don't want to get even?”  
  
Gajeel glanced at Juvia. “Wouldn't mind kicking that turban bastard's head in,” he said slowly.  
  
“Plus, there might be a reward,” Lucy said.  
  
“Okay. I'm in,” said Gajeel.  
  
“Juvia agrees that it is actually a good idea,” said Juvia.  
  
“Good,” Lucy said, and clambered to her feet. The room spun around her. She leant on the blackjack table for support and looked at Gray.  
  
“We're going to go get Erza. Are you coming?”  
  
Gray's mouth dropped open. He stared at her.  
  
“If you're not, can you make sure they don't hire our rooms out to anyone else while we're gone? Loke spent a lot on them.”  
  
“Of course I'm coming!” Gray exploded. “I'd go by myself if I had to!”  
  
“Oh. Okay,” Lucy said. Wow. Touchy. She settled the pouch with her keys in on her hip and reached out. “Juvia?” The resort didn't like guests to carry weapons around openly, so Lucy had asked Juvia to hang on to her whip for her. Juvia pulled the whip out of her torso and handed it over.  
  
“Uh,” Gray said. Lucy shook the whip off and hung it on her belt.  
  
“Do we know where they're going?”  
  
“They said something about a Tower of Heaven, but Juvia has not heard of it before.”  
  
“I can smell them. They headed that way,” Gajeel said, and pointed. “Towards the harbour.”  
  
“You sure?” Gray asked.  
  
“Does your Dragon Slayer have crap for a nose or something? I can smell them, Fullbuster,” Gajeel growled.  
  
“Fine,” Lucy said. She looked around at the cards on the floor and the people still struggling to get out of them. “Ryos, go tell the receptionist what happened and this Tower of Heaven thing. The rest of us are going to the harbour.”

* * *

Erza drifted slowly back to consciousness, and cracked her eyes open. The sunlight hurt. She was in a wooden cabin, stacked with crates and barrels, and her wrists were tied behind her back around a support column. She groaned. “Where am I?” Her mouth was desert dry; the words came out as a croak.  
  
“We're on a boat, sis!” Sho came down the steps. He'd changed into a long purple coat. “Heading back to the Tower of Heaven.”  
  
“Is that right?” Erza looked down. “Can you release me? I swear I won't fight.” There was no point in fighting. She always knew Jellal would want her back eventually. She always knew she was going to die at the Tower.  
  
“No can do,” Sho said. “Sorry, sis. You're a traitor, remember?”  
  
Erza dropped her gaze again. Her wrists were aching. She tugged at the cords, trying to get more comfortable, and couldn't.  
  
“It's no use,” Sho said. “Millianna's ropes seal magic. 'Fraid not even you can get out of them, sis.”  
  
“I understand,” Erza said, struggling to keep her breathing even. She drew her knees up towards her chest. “At least... at least let me put my armour on. I'm scared to go back to that place, Sho, I need my armour or I can't...” Her dress was so thin, it clung to her body and let in every gust of wind off the sea. She was so exposed. She shouldn't have dressed up, she knew she was safest in armour. “I need my armour,” she said.  
  
“That dress suits you too,” Sho said, and then as Erza shivered he was suddenly on his knees, his arms around her neck. Erza started.  
  
“Sho!”  
  
“I didn't want to do this to you,” he said. “I wanted to see you again so bad, sis, we all did-” His back shook. He was sobbing into her shoulder. “Why did you betray us?” Before Erza could answer him, he reared back. His eyes were white all around the edges, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, his face distorted with rage. “Why did you _betray Jellal_?”  
  
Erza closed her eyes.  
  
She remembered she'd been so scared, trying that last escape plan, because she knew what would happen if they failed like she knew now what would happen when they got back to the tower.  
  
“It'll be okay,” Jellal had said. “Don't be afraid.” And she believed him. She remembered how clear his eyes were, and his smile.

* * *

“Are you telling me that remnants of the R-system still survive?” Org yelled.  
  
“The R-System is a complex magical device which a black magic cult spent a great deal of time and effort trying to complete, eight years ago,” Yajima explained, for the benefit of the younger councillors. "It was designed to raise the dead." Ultear looked appropriately shocked. Siegrain yawned. "Of course, there's debate over whether it could ever work..."  
  
“There were seven towers,” another councillor said. “All of them were destroyed. There shouldn't be one brick left atop another brick!”  
  
“There was an eighth tower,” Belno said. “It's on an island off the coast of Caelum.”  
  
Org leant his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. “Are you serious?”  
  
“Unfortunately, when it comes to a sense of humour, our recon teams are sadly lacking,” Belno said.  
  
“And the device has been completed?” Ultear asked.  
  
“As far as we can tell,” Belno said.  
  
Org harrumphed.  
  
“Of all the times for the R-System to reappear,” Michello groaned.  
  
“The Tower of Heaven,” Siegrain corrected, because he had read every book in the Council's library and was insufferable. “Its proper name is the Tower of Heaven.”  
  
“Yes, that was the traditional term,” Michello said.  
  
“Don't quibble about terminology, Sieg, it doesn't matter what we call it,” Org snapped. “The R-system is taboo magic! It'd create havoc! We have to dispatch the military as soon as we can!”  
  
“We know nothing about our opponents, though,” Yajima said.  
  
“Nothing? But it was just stated that-”  
  
“The recon team's surveillance suggests that the group now occupying the tower is not affiliated with the cult we dealt with before,” Belno said. “It seems to be under the control of a man named Jellal.”  
  
“I've never heard of anyone by that name,” Michello said, and judging by the irritable silence, neither had anybody else.  
  
“Other than his name, we have no information on him,” Leiji said. He was leaning over to look at Belno's papers.  
  
“The man is positively _shrouded_ in mystery,” Belno agreed wearily.  
  
There was a moment of silence while the councillors thought, interrupted by a knock on the door. One of the amphibious administrators stuck her head in. “Councillors? We have a report from the south coast-”  
  
“This is an important meeting,” Org said.  
  
“We need a 'do not disturb' sign on the door,” Sieg said. “Painted in frog blood.”  
  
“Sieg. Zip it,” said Org.  
  
“It concerns Fairy Tail and an attack on civilians,” the administrator said. “You said you should be told immediately if anything happened involving-”  
  
“I know what we said! Listen to what we're saying now-”  
  
“Does it involve the Tower of Heaven?” Sieg asked flippantly.  
  
The administrator looked down at the papers in her hand. “Yes.”  
  
Sieg looked surprised. “Really? Huh.”  
  
“The administrators don't have much of a sense of humour either,” Belno said. “What happened?”  
  
“The Titania, the Iron Dragon, Juvia Lockser and another two mages were staying at the Akane Resort on the south coast. They were in the casino when four other mages invaded it, imprisoned the civilian guests inside playing cards-”  
  
“The invaders, or the Fairies?”  
  
“The invaders,” said the administrator. “They subsequently abducted Erza Scarlet and escaped by ship. They were heard saying that they were returning to a 'Tower of Heaven' and that someone named Jellal would be pleased to see them back. The other mages in the Titania's group have gone after her.”  
  
Ultear glanced at Sieg, who said "Do you think Erza's bought an Armour of Kidnap Victim lately?"  
  
Org beckoned. The admistrator crossed the room quietly and set the documents in front of him.  
  
“Have the civilians been released?”  
  
“A squad of spellbreakers is working on it as we speak,” the administrator said.  
  
“Good. Thank you. You may leave.” The administrator withdrew.  
  
“Why would Miss Scarlet's presence be required?” Ultear asked, brow creased.  
  
“The Tower requires a sacrifice,” Sieg said. “Any powerful mage. The Titania would do nicely.”  
  
“So,” Belno said. “Whatever they mean to do, they will do it soon. This needs to be dealt with quickly.”

* * *

Gray was standing up in the boat, rocking slightly with the waves. “Where the hell are we?”  
  
“We have been drifting aimlessly for some time,” Juvia said.  
  
“What are you doing?” Gray said, to Gajeel.  
  
Gajeel showed Gray both his middle fingers. “It's around here, Fullbuster.”  
  
Gray was fuming. He would probably have been pacing the length of the boat, if it hadn't been for Juvia, Gajeel and Lucy blocking him one way and Ryos curled up in the bottom the other way. (Ryos had come hurtling down the pier and leapt into the boat just as Juvia cast off. Lucy was hoping he wouldn't get in the way. Sure, he was a mage of some sort – she wasn't sure what exactly – but on the other hand, he was six years old. Twelve? Whatever.)  
  
“Damn it!” Gray kicked the side of the boat. “I can't believe they just took Erza away while I was unconscious! How pathetic is that?”  
  
“That's an accurate assessment,” Juvia said.  
  
“Seriously, they kicked the Titania's ass? Fuck me,” said Gajeel. He was standing up as well, which made the boat tip forwards a little towards the front.  
  
“Juvia would rather not,” said Juvia. Lucy stifled a snort with her hand.  
  
Gray turned on Gajeel. “There's no way they beat Erza! You don't know the first thing about her!”  
  
“Miss Erza didn't fight them,” Juvia said sharply. “Juvia is quite sure that Miss Erza could have defeated them all, had she wanted to. She did not fight back.”  
  
“So... we can't assume that Erza's going to help us rescue her,” Lucy said. “She said they were old friends of hers, from before she joined Fairy Tail.” She looked at Gray. “Do you know anything about that?”  
  
He looked down, and made a noise like _tch_.  
  
Hah. Who didn't know anything about Erza, again?  
  
“Oh, well,” she said. “We know who we're dealing with now, and I don't think they can match us when they can't take us by surprise. This'll be easy!” If it didn't involve summoning eldritch abominations or fighting one of the ten Wizard Saints, Lucy wasn't going to worry about it.  
  
“Oi,” Gajeel said, and pointed. “Tower!”


	19. The Tower of Heaven

Erza craned her head back. The tower loomed over her. Towards the top, the mismatched levels blurred together and turned black against the sun. Her eyes watered from the light. She blinked it away.  
  
“You really did complete it.”  
  
“It's been eight years,” Sho said. “It wasn't hard, because we had the plans. Really, we only put the finishing touches on the place.”  
  
“Move,” Simon said, and shoved her forward.  
  
“Eight years,” Erza said. “You guys, you've all changed-”  
  
They said nothing. It was a ridiculous statement. Had she thought they would just stop without her, freeze like flies in amber until Jellal brought her back?  
  
They took her down under the ground and locked her in one of the old cells. They chained her arms over her head. She let them, and closed her eyes like she was sleeping. It was as cold as a mortuary down there.  
  
“Should we go tell Jellal we got Erza back?” Millianna asked Wally.  
  
“He knows, Millianna,” Wally says. “That guy, he doesn't miss a thing in this tower.”  
  
“Jellal says he's gonna do the ceremony tomorrow, at midday,” Sho said. “These'll be your quarters until then, sis.”  
  
The ceremony?  
  
Wait. He was actually trying to activate the R-System? Erza's eyes opened wide. Sho was still talking.  
  
“No hard feelings, right? You're the traitor, you dug your own grave. Jellal's pretty mad at you.”  
  
“He decided to let you be the sacrifice, though,” Millianna said. “It's sad we won't see you again, but that's an honour!” She leant against the doorframe and scuffed a toe through the dust. “I think you were always his favourite a little bit, Erza!”  
  
“No, Jellal doesn't have a favourite!” Sho snapped. “Why would Erza be favourite, anyway? She left!”  
  
“Me- _ow_ ,” Millianna said, and mimed zipping her mouth shut.  
  
“Dandy men don't lose their cool, Sho,” Wally said, as Simon turned and walked away. Sho made a face at them all.  
  
Erza's hands were clenched into fists, and shaking. Millianna noticed first. She butted her head against Wally's arm and flicked her eyes towards them.  
  
“It's not dandy to tremble, Erza,” Wally said.  
  
Sho looked at her in surprise. “Are you scared?”  
  
Erza said nothing.  
  
“Does being the sacrifice frighten you?” Sho asked. “Or is it this old place bringing up some nostalgia?” He gestured around at the old cell with studied disinterest.  
  
She was scared. She wanted to huddle on the floor with her arms over her head, just like the last time – almost the last time – she was down there.  
  
“We'll settle for one of you, today,” the guard had said. She didn't remember which one. They'd all been the same. “Who was the genius behind this botched escape? Tell us who it was that led you little darlings astray, and you'll get off with a slap on the wrist.” He laughed. “Are we merciful, or what?”  
  
She'd glanced sideways. Sho was sobbing with terror, tears and snot dripping down his face. He was the youngest of them, so skinny, there wasn't enough of him to take any punishment. For a stupid selfish moment, she almost hated him for being so weak. She cleared her throat. “I-”  
  
Jellal cut her off. “It was me. I planned it and told them what to do.” He was standing up, feet apart, braced for a blow. The guard looked him over, and grinned.  
  
“Bullshit. It was this girl, wasn't it?” He grabbed Erza by the neck of her tunic and hauled her off the ground.  
  
“What?” Jellal demanded, and Simon let out a wordless shout.  
  
“Take her,” the guard  
  
Erza had seen them take people away before. Sometimes they went quietly, and sometimes they screamed and struggled until the guards beat them to the ground. She couldn't scream. She couldn't speak at all.  
  
“No! It was me, I did it!” Jellal shouted.  
  
“It wasn't Erza!” Simon yelled.  
  
“D-don't worry,” she'd said. “It'll be fine. It's not scary at all-” People didn't go quietly because they weren't afraid. It was because there were people they didn't want to remember them crying. Jellal fought to get to her, and one of the guards picked him up, shook him like a doll and slammed him into the ground. He howled. “Erza!”  
  
“Sorry, sis,” Sho said, breaking her reverie. She looked up. Simon had stomped off. Millianna and Wally were standing in the doorway, and Sho was right there. It was just that for a moment, she thought she had seen other people in their place. People with whips and hounds. Sho was looking down at his feet. “I should have admitted to it, back then, that it was my plan, but I was only worried about saving my own hide.”  
  
Erza remembered being terrified, sick with fear, but she couldn't care about it any more. It was nothing compared to what came after, anyway.  
  
“That's long in the past,” she said. “Do you understand what'll happen if you try to raise the dead using the R-System?”  
  
Sho lifted his head. “You know what it's for? I'm impressed.”  
  
“Erza does her homework!” Millianna chirped.  
  
“The Revival System: in exchange for one living sacrifice, one person can be brought back from the dead,” Erza rattled off. “It's forbidden magic, completely divorced from humanity.”  
  
“Ehn? When did magic have anything to do with humanity?” Millianna said.  
  
“Magic is how we _surpass_ humanity,” Sho said.  
  
“You sound just like those cultists!” Erza said. “Just like them. How did you guys turn into them?”  
  
“That's hardly fair,” Wally said. “Those were the least dandy men I ever saw.”  
  
“They didn't get it!” Millianna said cheerfully. “They thought the Tower was just a boring 'anti-soul restoration device'.” She pronounced the words carefully. “It would have been a waste to leave it to them!”  
  
“They didn't have Jellal's foresight,” Sho said. “He's going to create a paradise for us, Erza!”  
  
“A paradise,” Erza said flatly.  
  
“When Jellal's resurrected Zeref, it'll remake the whole world,” Sho said. “And it'll be ours!” He laughed breathlessly. “All the remnants of the cult that stole our lives, the morons on the council who didn't do anything, all your new friends you like better than us-” His voice was rising. “All the ignorant people enjoying their lives – we'll make them all suffer! We'll make them suffer like we suffered!” Millianna was smiling, Wally was nodding. Sho was shouting now, alight with religious fervour, face twisted with hate. “We'll be the rulers of the-”  
  
Erza kneed him in the chin. Sho was flung backwards. Blood spurted from his mouth. Millianna shrieked.  
  
“Nekosoku Tube!”  
  
Erza swept one leg across in front of her so that the tube wrapped around her calf, then pulled her knee in close to her chest, and Millianna was yanked towards her, squealing. Erza slammed her forehead into hers. Millianna stumbled backwards, gasping, and Erza kicked her in the stomach. Millianna folded up.  
  
Wally had been delayed for a split second. He couldn't have shot through Millianna.  
  
“Simon!” he hollered. “Dandy men don't call for help!” Erza kicked off one of her stiletto heels, caught the strap between her toes and whipped it at him. He yelped and ducked. Erza jumped, sank her teeth into the binding around her wrists and tore. It came loose – loose enough, thought she ripped layers of skin from her wrists in pulling them free. She summoned a sword and dived forward as Wally fired. The bullet sang over her head and cracked against the stone wall. Erza rolled, catapulted back to her feet and drove the point of the sword into Wally's throat. He gagged and fell to the ground, eyes rolled back into his head.  
  
He would be fine. It was only a wooden bokken.  
  
“Jellal, you bastard, what did you do to my friends?” The pretty dress vaporised. Brilliant light whirled around her and solidified into her regular armour. Her mouth was set with iron determination. “I can't let this go unpunished!”

* * *

Jellal threw back his head and laughed like a madman.  
  
“What is it?” Vidaldus asked. Vidaldus was not an advisor. Vidaldus liked to think he was an advisor, but he was actually just a giant meddler.  
  
“Isn't Erza incredible?” Jellal said. “Really, don't you think she's incredible?” Vidaldus offered no opinion on Erza's incredibility.  
  
The two men were both at the top of the tower, in the throne room. This was a great airy hall with a high ceiling and no side walls, only decorated columns and vast apertures opening onto a balcony. At this altitude, the wind whistled through the hall and tugged at Jellal's coat, and only the immense quantity of hair gel Vidaldus used kept it from blowing his long black hair out of all control.  
  
Jellal got up, descended the steps of his throne and went to his board. He flicked over the pieces representing Sho, Millianna and Wally. “Isn't this interesting, Vidaldus? Are you wondering which of us will win?”  
  
There was a brief pause while Vidaldus decided to ignore everything Jellal'd just said. “I was concerned with the actions of the Council-”  
  
Jellal gestured for him to hush and waited expectantly, one finger on top of Simon's piece.

* * *

Simon's heavy footsteps thudded outside the door to the cell. “Wally? Is something-” Then he saw Wally, Sho and Millianna lying on the floor, and the empty hook where they had hung Erza up. He groaned, and came forward into the cell. He had to stoop to get under the lintel.  
  
Erza was crouching on top of the lintel, and as Simon stepped forward, she struck downwards right onto the bolt where his prosthetic jaw was fixed into his skull. He staggered. Erza threw herself off the lintel. Both boots slammed into the back of Simon's neck. He crashed to the floor with a shout. “Erza!”  
  
She hit him again, and then again because he had always been the strongest of them. The bokken snapped. Erza gasped and dropped to one knee to make sure he was okay. Simon was unconscious, but still breathing. She didn't really want to hurt any of them. She just needed them not to be in the way. And she didn't want to hear more of Jellal's insanity coming out of her friends' mouths.  
  
She stood and left the cell. She locked the door behind her.

* * *

Jellal knocked over Simon's token. “All four of them at a time,” he said. He thought it over. “Good. That's how it should be. There's nothing more boring than a one-sided game, and those guys are nothing; I'd be disappointed if Erza couldn't beat them.”  
  
“Jellal,” Vidaldus said. “We should recapture Erza quickly and hold the ceremony before the Council can act. This isn't the time to be playing around.”  
  
“If that's what you think, why don't you go down and catch her yourselves?”  
  
Vidaldus tilted his head to one side. “Are you sure?”  
  
Jellal reached for his three spare pieces and set them down on the board. The guitar, the owl, the little doll in kimono. “She's had her go, hasn't she?”  
  
Vidaldus grinned wildly, and then thrust both arms down, crossed at the wrists. As he lifted his hands, all six feet of his hair streamed upwards, light flared up all around him and the air hummed like a vibrating guitar string. When he dropped his hands, his skin had turned bleach white, black makeup ringed his eyes, and two people stood beside him.  
  
“Death's Head Caucus Raiding Squadron, Trinity Raven,” Jellal said. “It's your turn now.”  
  
“Hell!” Vidaldus shouted, exultant, insane. “I'll drag all you bitches down to hell!”  
  
“Whoo-whoo,” said Fukuro, and tipped his head on one side.  
  
“Life and love alike / shall be scattered to the wind,” Ikaruga said. “Tonight, we rejoice.”

* * *

“That's a lot of guards,” Gray said.  
  
“They've got spears and swords,” Ryos said.  
  
“So? They look tasty,” Gajeel said. Lucy hoped he was talking about the swords and spears and not the guards themselves.  
  
“So they're not likely to be mages,” Ryos said.  
  
“Let's plough through them, then!”  
  
Lucy reached out, grabbed the top of Gajeel's head and shoved him back down.  
  
“Oi!”  
  
Four of them were crouched behind boulders at the very edge of the island, looking up at the great staircase that led to the base of the tower. There were smaller towers dotted around at the base, like a little village, but the streets between them were empty and all the windows were shuttered. Little boats had been hauled up the beach and overturned. Lucy didn't think there was a single person around, except for the guards.  
  
There were an awful lot of guards, though.  
  
“They've got Erza, remember?” she said. “If we just charge in blindly, we could put her in danger.”

  
“Lucy!” Lucy turned around. Juvia emerged out of the sea just behind them. “Juvia has found a way into the basement through the water!”  
  
Lucy punched the air. “Nice one!”  
  
“Yeah, good job,” Gray said. Juvia shot him a glare, because once Juvia had decided she disliked someone, it was very difficult to change her mind.  
  
“It's a journey of about ten minutes, but it won't be a problem to hold your breath for that long, will it?”  
  
“Nope. Easy-peasy,” said Gray and Gajeel.  
  
“Juvia, nobody can do that,” said Lucy and Ryos.  
  
“I see,” Juvia said, and considered it. “Then, please, put these spheres on your heads. They are formed of super-oxygenated water, so you should be able to breathe.”  
  
Gajeel grabbed on and popped it over his head. For a moment his face looked misshapen, like he had his head in a fishbowl, and then his hair rose up and drifted around his head like seaweed. Gajeel was rapidly ensnared in a floating black tangle. He waved his hands in front of his face and made muffled angry noises. Bubbles popped on the outside of the sphere.  
  
“That's actually a lot better. Can we keep him like that?” Lucy asked.

* * *

Erza was ascending the steps out of the cellars, with a falchion in each hand, when she heard it. A faint low buzzing vibrated through the walls and hummed under her feet. She stopped. Red mouths opened up all over the walls. “Muah, manamana,” they sang, staticky and distorted, and then Jellal's voice rang out loud and clear.  
  
“Erza! Long time no see! Do you want to play a game?”  
  
Erza backed into a corner with both swords raised, realised that she was backing into another mouth and leapt away.  
  
“Shush, shush,” Jellal murmured. Was he watching her? She forced her hands down to her sides, trying to look calm. She couldn't show weakness in front of him.  
  
“Much better,” he said. He was definitely watching her. Sweat trickled down the back of Erza's neck. Her muscles ached with the effort of not moving. “It's called the Paradise Game. The rules are that if I sacrifice you to resurrect Zeref, then I win. If you can stop me, you win! But that would be too simple, so I have three extra players here.”  
  
Erza frowned.  
  
“Erza, you're not going to guess who they are,” Jellal said. “You're going to have to get past them to reach me at the top of the tower.” There was a moment of silence, and then he finished abruptly, “That's all. Have fun!” The mouths on the walls vanished.  
  
Erza lifted her chin and raised her falchions. Jellal was at the top of the tower. The obstacles didn't matter.

* * *

Back in Era, the council members were arguing. This was not unusual.  
  
“The R-System is the darkest kind of magic,” Org snapped. “It can't be permitted to work on principle! Breaking the law of life and death – it'd cause chaos!”  
  
“We don't know the intentions of the people occupying the tower-”  
  
“Whoever Jellal is, whatever he plans to do, we have to consider him an enemy! We need to dispatch the army immediately!”  
  
“Pathetic,” Siegrain said, and repeated himself louder when nobody listened. “Pathetic!”  
  
“What?” said Michello.  
  
Belno glared. “Sieg, how dare you?”  
  
“Just dispatching the army? What kind of weak response is that? Have you failed to realise how dangerous the situation is?” Siegrain shouted. “There's only one way to deal with this!” He met all their angry stares, eyes narrowed, a deep line carved between his eyebrows. “ _Satellite Square's Etherion_.”  
  
“The destruction magic that transcends space-time?” Michello gasped.  
  
“Sieg, have you gone out of your mind?”  
  
“Do you realise the damage that could cause? That magic has enough power to wipe out a whole country!”  
  
“It's the most powerful weapon we possess! It's far more dangerous than R-system!”  
  
Yajima just sighed, because of course Siegrain wanted to fire Etherion at it. He was a teenaged boy.  
  
“But Satellite Square can target everything on the surface from a distance,” Siegrain said. “It's a massive tower! If we want to destroy it, Etherion is the only choice!”  
  
Ultear had been sitting quietly, watching the senior council members debate, but now she raised her hand. “I agree with Sieg.”  
  
“Ultear, not you as well!” Org said, exasperated. Sieg had always been a terrible influence on Ultear.  
  
“There are nine of us, with the Chairman ill,” Michello said. “If three more people agree, we'll fire Etherion.”  
  
The council members looked at each other.  
  
“We don't have time to squabble over this!” Sieg said. “We absolutely can't allow the R-System to be used!”

* * *

Jellal returned to his throne as Trinity Raven swept downstairs, and glanced back at the board. Oh. Erza's friends were coming in through the old flooded quarry. Good. He had been starting to wonder if they'd gotten lost.  
  
Should he repeat himself? ...No. They would work it out. Or they would lose. Either way -  
  
Involuntarily, he glanced upwards. The decision hadn't even been made yet. There was still more than an hour to go. Watching Erza's friends flop around and die would be a nice distraction.

* * *

Juvia led the other four through a rock-carved underwater tunnel so long that no light filtered in at all and they had to feel their way along the walls. When Lucy saw the first dim twilight glow as the tunnel curved back up towards the air, she made a beeline for it.  
  
“Lucy! Stop!” Juvia gasped, but not in time to stop Lucy from colliding headfirst with a metal grille.  
  
“Owww...” Lucy pressed both hands to her head and very slowly floated away. Juvia sliced through the metal and pulled her through. On the other side, they found a deep rocky sunlit pool where fish slid away as they swam past. They clambered out of the water, into a large room criss-crossed by walkways, and shook themselves off.  
  
Lucy pulled her water sphere off with a pop.  
  
Gajeel did the same, and stuck one of the bars Juvia had cut from the grille into his mouth. “It's salty,” he said with a scowl, but didn't stop eating.  
  
“That worked well. Nice one,” Gray said to Juvia.  
  
“Juvia thinks Gray did very well too, even after I made his sphere smaller than the others,” Juvia replied pleasantly.  
  
“Juvia, you're so mean,” Lucy whispered, and smothered a giggle behind her hand. “Okay, Erza'll be here somewhere. Maybe close by.” She held her arms out to the sides so Juvia could draw the water out of her clothes. Prisons were usually underground, right? Where the rats and dripping pipes were. Ugh. “We just need to be stealthy, and avoid attracting attention for as long as-”  
  
“Who the hell are you guys?”  
  
Lucy goggled upwards. Suddenly, the walkways above them were full of guards. “Oh, no! How did they know we were here?”  
  
“Who cares? Let's kick their asses!”  
  
None of the guards were mages. They were only armed with spears, and their spears skidded off Gajeel's iron scales and slid harmlessly through Juvia. One guardswoman drove her spear into Juvia's chest and out the other side, and was surprised as hell when Juvia blasted her with high-pressure water.  
  
Gray raced up the stairs to the first walkway and somersaulted backwards off the railing, directly over a mob of guards. “Ice-Make: Hammer!” The massive sledgehammer crashed down into the crowd. Those that hadn't been directly under it were sprayed with shrapnel as it shattered.  
  
Lucy flung out a hand, two keys between her fingers. “Open, Gates of the Crab and the Chisel!” Caelum dropped into her hands. Cancer slashed through the onrushing guards in a blur of steel and a cloud of flying hair. A few tried to slip around behind Lucy, but she spun and bludgeoned them into unconsciousness with Caelum.  
  
Ryos stayed back, behind Gajeel.  
  
“Good job, Cancer! And you guys too,” Lucy said. Cancer vanished back to the stellar spirit world. Lucy looked around. “Where's the way out of here?”  
  
Gray pointed. “That trapdoor up there.”  
  
They all looked up. At the highest point of the walkways, a ladder led up to a trapdoor. It was shut, and only narrow enough for one person to get through at a time.  
  
“You know what's going to happen if we go through there, right?” Lucy said. “We climb up there and then the guy waiting upstairs with a big club bashes our skulls in one by one. Well, not Juvia's.”  
  
“I'll go first, then, if you lot are all so worried about being tapped on the head,” said Gajeel.  
  
“Yeah, there's nothing in his head that he uses,” Gray agreed.  
  
“Oi!”  
  
“Both of you, quit it!” Lucy said. “I've got a better idea. Caelum, Cannon Form!” The chisel transformed, and Lucy set it down. Caelum could take out the trapdoor and anyone lurking behind it in one shot. “Aim!” The barrel rotated to point at the trapdoor. “Charge!”  
  
The trapdoor swung open.  
  
“Uh. Wow. I never intimidated a trapdoor before,” Lucy said.  
  
“Are they telling us to come up?” Gray said.  
  
“That's bound to be a trap,” Ryos said.  
  
“A trap door!” Gajeel agreed, nodding.  
  
So, after a moment of consideration, Lucy blasted it anyway. After the dust had settled and they'd blinked the afterimages out of their eyes, what was left was a big hole in the ceiling and another big hole where there used to be a walkway.  
  
“Ice-Make: Stairs!” Gray thrust out one hand, and a set of frozen steps burst out of the ground and stretched up towards the ceiling. Fog rolled off it. “Let's go!”  
  
Gray, Gajeel and Juvia raced up the steps with ease. Lucy and Ryos got halfway up, slipped over and fell down shrieking.  
  
The trapdoor opened into an empty dining room. There were no guards around. No charbroiled men with big clubs. “There are no enemies?” Juvia said, and was interrupted by a high-pitched yowl from below.  
  
“Help!”  
  
Lucy and Ryos had fallen over again.  
  
“Ice-Make: Handrail,” Gray said.  
  
He couldn't have done that from the start? Lucy and Ryos hauled themselves up, and Lucy looked around.  
  
“Where is everyone? Shouldn't there be people trying to kill us? Not that I'm complaining,” she added hurriedly.  
  
“Juvia thinks the trapdoor may have opened by itself,” Juvia said.  
  
Oh God. Ghosts. “This tower's _haunted_?!”  
  
“Or it may have been triggered remotely,” Juvia said.  
  
“Oh yeah,” said Lucy. “So... they know where we are, and they don't want their tower blown up?” She looked around. They were standing in a big room with a balcony running all around it and a high coffered ceiling. A long dining table held flowers in vases. She couldn't see any sign of a surveillance system, so whatever it was, it was well hidden. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, but that wasn't from lack of use. That was from the explosion.  
  
Caelum had blown a hole in one wall, as well. Whoops. Lucy peeked through it and saw-  
  
-a classroom? There was a blackboard, the times-tables painted on a wall, a big mural of the tower and a happy smiling sun. The blackboard was scrubbed clean, the tables and benches were pushed against the walls and there were darker patches showing where the pictures had been taken down.  
  
“It's not the right time for a school holiday, is it?” she said, but before anyone could answer there was a yell.  
  
“There they are! It's the intruders!”  
  
“Oh no! Again?” Lucy said, as more guards rushed in. Gray and Juvia fired off Ice Lances and Water Slicers into the mob. Some fell and rolled under the other guards' boots, shrieking, but then the guards were on them.  
  
Gajeel transformed one arm into an iron bar as a spear skidded off his chest. Gray ducked under a spear-swing and pressed both hands to the floor. “Ice-Make: Geyser!” A tower of spiky ice erupted from the ground, sending guards flying, and shattered as Gajeel swung his arm through it.  
  
“What are you doing, you tool?” Gray yelled at him. “Look where you're aiming!”  
  
“Keep out of my way!” Gajeel yelled back. Juvia was firing off bullets of high-pressure water that sent the guards flying backwards, blood spurting from their mouths, and cratered the walls whenever they missed. She didn't miss often.  
  
Gajeel and Gray were still yelling at each other and flailing around; ice lances and iron bars slashed through Juvia's body, but she ignored them and coolly launched another Water Slicer into the mob. Lucy backed up against the far wall, Caelum held defensively in front of her. The walls and floor were shaking. Chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling. Lucy swung Caelum up to block one, and a spear was thrust at her midsection. She shrieked, but before it could hit Gajeel flattened her by accident. Lucy sprawled wheezing on the floor.  
  
Then everything went black.  
  
Lucy panicked for a moment, thinking that she'd been knocked unconscious and would probably wake up wearing a metal bikini in a dungeon, but then realised she was still awake. She scrabbled backwards. Loud thuds and cries rang out of the darkness. “Juvia? Gajeel?”  
  
“It's the bastard with the metal face!” Gajeel snarled. “Filthy cheater!”

* * *

“Owww...”  
  
“Hey, Sho. Get up. That's too sharp an outfit to be lying in the dirt in.”  
  
Sho opened his eyes.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“Erza's escaped!” Millianna said, and pressed both hands to her cheeks and smiled. “That brings back memories!”  
  
“She grew into one troublesome dame,” Wally agreed.  
  
Sho scrambled to his feet. “Oh no! This is bad! This is really bad!” He clutched at his hair. “Goddamn it! What are we gonna _do_? What are we gonna-”  
  
“Sho, you got to be more dandy,” Wally advised. “Nobody gets away from this island. Millianna, Erza escaping isn't a good thing.”  
  
“Oh, right!” said Millianna.  
  
“We're going to be thrown off a cliff!” Sho said. “She'll ruin everything! Jellal's gonna be so mad!”  
  
“Sho, breathe,” Wally said. “We're Jellal's best friends. None of us are going to be taking a saltwater nap.”  
  
“Where's Simon?” Sho looked around.  
  
“Oh no! What if she ate Simon?” Millianna said.  
  
“Oh my God, she ate Simon!” said Sho.  
  
This was the opposite of dandy. “Both of you, shut your yaps up,” Wally said. They shut up. Wally looked around. The door had been locked, and then pulled off its hinges. “That looks like the big man's handiwork. Simon blew this joint already. He'll be going after Erza. We gotta get after them.”  
  
“Do you think she'll go after Jellal?” Sho said. “She doesn't know where he is, right?”  
  
“Erza's a smart cookie. She'll have worked it out,” Wally said. “When you got a massive tower like this one, there's no place for a dandy man to be but right at the top of it.”

* * *

The lights came back on. Lucy scrambled to her feet.  
  
“What happened?” Ryos was crouched at her side. He must have had a hell of a time getting over to her in the pitch blackness. She swung Caelum up to cover both of them.  
  
The big guy in the turban was standing in the middle of a field of unconscious, battered guards.  
  
“This _asshole_ took all the action,” Gajeel snarled.  
  
Juvia looked as if she was wondering whether attacking the guy would be polite. Gray had no such compunctions.  
  
“Ice Lancer!”  
  
Frozen spears burst from Gray's hands and arced towards Turban Guy. He sidestepped, snatched the other two out of the air, and crushed them in his massive hands.  
  
“Don't attack,” he said. “I'm on your side!”  
  
There was a long pause while they all looked at each other.  
  
“Bullshit,” said Gajeel.  
  
“Uh, what?” Lucy said. “You tried to kill us! You blew Gajeel up!”  
  
“Not like I'm bothered, I've been blown up better,” Gajeel said.  
  
“It was rude, though,” Lucy said. “Is that how people say hello on Abduction Island? Exploding each other in the face?”  
  
“If you died that easily, you wouldn't have been of any use to begin with,” said Metalface.  
  
“Died? What? Try 'got murdered'!” Lucy said.  
  
“Yeah, _dickface_ ,” Gajeel agreed.  
  
“Let me explain,” Metalface said. Lucy folded her arms. This had better be really, really good. “My name is Simon. This entire building is part of a magical device called the R-System. Years ago, Erza, our friends and I were among those kidnapped and enslaved in order to build it.”  
  
Somewhere at the back of Lucy's mind, she heard a voice say, _You'll have to forgive Erza; she wasn't raised in a household that valued manners. An absolute_ slave _to her conscience..._  
  
“Our leader was a boy named Jellal; he was idealistic and reckless, but charismatic, and my friends were all devoted to him. He led an escape attempt which ended in disaster; to be fair, he did try to hand himself in as the ringleader, but the guards didn't believe him and took Erza away instead.”  
  
“Took her where?” Gray demanded.  
  
“The punishment room,” Simon said simply. Gray scowled. “Jellal tried to rescue her and only succeeded in taking her place. Erza led a revolution to save him, and in exchange he threw her off the island, blew up the ships we meant to escape on, and claimed that Erza had done it. He trapped us all on the island and convinced the rest of them to continue where the cultists who had enslaved us left off.”  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lucy said. “And you tried to kill us at the casino because?”  
  
“I didn't plan on killing you then. It was only to fool Sho and the others. They were all completely taken in by Jellal. I pretended to believe him as well, and waited for the right time.”  
  
“So you actually didn't want Erza to be kidnapped?” Lucy said.  
  
“Of course not!”  
  
Gray folded his arms. He was scowling. “Then how come you kidnapped her?”  
  
“That does sound counterproductive,” Juvia agreed.  
  
“It was so that Jellal wouldn't realise,” Simon said.  
  
“That guy wasn't even at the kidnapping!” Lucy said. “Why didn't you just punch your evil buddies in the back of the head when they weren't looking-”  
  
“I don't think you can punch people in the back of the head when they are looking,” Ryos said.  
  
“Whatever - and then go find Erza and tell her 'hey, I want your help to fight an evil jellybean, bring all your swords and your friends and your friends' swords'?” She spread her hands. “I just thought of that right now and I'm not even good at planning!”  
  
“You're suggesting I just attack my own friends?”  
  
“He didn't seem to mind attacking Erza,” Ryos said to Juvia. “Which implies that Erza isn't his friend.”  
  
Simon spread his hands wide in frustration. “What do I have to do to convince you?”  
  
“Not attacking us would have been a good start!” Lucy said. “Why did any of you want to kidnap Erza anyway?”  
  
“I told you, this tower is a black magic device called the R-System. It's designed to resurrect the dead, but it requires a sacrifice. Jellal means for Erza to be the sacrifice so that he can raise Zeref.”  
  
There was a long silence. “... the black mage, Zeref?” Juvia asked eventually, for clarification.  
  
“How many Zerefs are there?” Gray said. “Who's going to name their kid Zeref?”  
  
“Oh my God,” Lucy said. “First you attack us and kidnap Erza, then you say you were really on our side the whole time, and now suddenly this is all a big plot to resurrect Zeref?” She turned to the others. “Do any of you think we should trust this guy? I don't!”  
  
“Nor does Juvia.”  
  
“No,” said Ryos.  
  
“Hello no,” said Gajeel. “What, do you think we're stupid?”  
  
“This guy's stalling us,” Gray said. “He's stopping us finding Erza. Let's kick his ass and go!”  
  
“Sounds good,” Gajeel growled.  
  
Simon sighed, and Lucy realised what he was about to do a moment before he cast the spell. “Dark Moment!”  
  
Everything vanished. Lucy shrieked. “Juvia! Water Slicer!” Juvia shot off a volley of water arcs right where Simon had been standing, but there was no answering cry of pain. When the darkness cleared, Simon had disappeared.  
  
“You're not getting away again! I can track you by smelling your stupid face!” Gajeel roared, and took off after him at a run.  
  
(At his gameboard at the top of the tower, Jellal laughed so hard he had to sit down.)  
  
“Um,” Lucy said, as the noise of Gajeel's pounding footsteps disappeared into the distance. “Is anyone else concerned about what he was saying?”  
  
“What, do you believe him now?” said Gray.  
  
“Of course I don't think he's really on our side! It's the rest of it. When we were at the Judicial Palace, I ran into Erza talking to Councillor Siegrain, and he made a couple weird comments about Erza being _a slave to her conscience_ – I think the first part could be true.”  
  
Gray nodded slowly. Lucy could see him putting it together with things he already knew, but he didn't share them. Or maybe he was just mentally adding Siegrain onto his to-punch list.  
  
“And the village is empty, that classroom's been packed up and we've seen nobody but guards and the kidnapping squad. It's like they've evacuated. There must be something big happening. Do you think he was telling the truth about resurrecting Zeref?”  
  
Gray's face went cold and closed off. “Nobody would do that. That's insane.”  
  
“I met a woman one time who tried to feed everyone she knew to chthonians. People are crazy,” Lucy said. They really shouldn't have let Ryos come. Well, he was there now. They would just have to look after him.“There's something about to happen. I just don't know what-” She ducked through the hole in the classroom wall and looked around.  
  
“Do you really think anyone would try to restore Zeref to power?” Juvia asked.  
  
Lucy turned around. On the wall that Caelum had blasted through, half-reduced to dust, was a fingerpainting of a big purple swirly monster. Next to it were painted three words. OUR LORD ZEREF.  
  
“They're totally trying to resurrect Zeref! That's completely what they're doing!” Lucy said. “Oh my God!”  
  
“Then we need to find Erza faster and kick these guys' asses,” Gray snapped, as Lucy scrambled out of the classroom. “Come on!”  
  
“What are you talking about, kicking their asses?” Lucy said. Gajeel had just run off and they had Ryos to look after. “We should find Erza and get out!" They couldn't go through with the plan without Erza. "The Council can deal with the cultists.”  
  
“What?” Gray scrunched up his face. “The Magic Council? Why?”  
  
“Well, they already know about it! And they have an army, we don't?” Lucy said. “Majorly psychotic cults are their problem! I just want to find Erza and get the hell out of here!”  
  
“That's a waste of time. What's the Council done? They'd just meddle and screw it up!” Gray said. “I'm going to find Erza.” He turned and stomped away.  
  
“Bye! Won't miss you,” Lucy said under her breath.  
  
Where would she find a communications lacrima? Would it even be possible to communicate with people off the island? Probably not. She would have to try something else.  
  
“Open, Gate of the Crab! Cancer!”  
  
Cancer materialised, scissors raised, and looked around. “It's not a fight, -ebi?” He brightened up. A hopeful glow radiated from behind his sunglasses. “Do you want your hair cut?”  
  
“No,” Lucy said. Cancer wilted. Even the crab legs extending from his back drooped towards the floor. “I need a message delivered... but if you help I'll find you so many people who actually want their hair cut. And tickets to the ice hockey!”  
  
Cancer wavered, but was ultimately unable to resist the lure of haircuts and ice-based ultraviolence. “Deal, -ebi.”

* * *

“If we want to prevent the R-System from being used, there's no other option. Etherion is the only way,” Sieg said.  
  
“This type of black magic has been forbidden since ancient times, and for good reason,” Ultear agreed.  
  
“If we use Etherion, it will destroy everything!” Org banged his fist on the table. “Innocents could be killed! We already know that the Titania is probably in the tower.”  
  
“Erza's escaped already. I expect,” Sieg said dismissively. Belno rolled her eyes a little. Ultear looked sharply at Sieg, who ignored her. She kicked him under the table. He wriggled further away. “How many innocents would you expect to find on Abduction Island, anyway? Belno, did the recon team see any evidence that they were using slaves?”  
  
“None,” Belno said. “They managed to capture two inhabitants who were out on a fishing boat. One leapt overboard in chains, the other was foolishly left alone and managed to take a suicide pill. All that the recon team managed to get out of them is that they had overthrown the original builders – which seemed to be a point of pride – and the name of their leader, which the first one screamed as he jumped off the ship.” Sieg rolled his eyes. “The evidence suggests fanatical loyalty.”  
  
“Good,” Sieg said. “What? Loyalty is an admirable trait.” His eyes narrowed a little. “It's irritating that they didn't tell you who they were trying to raise. Still, do they sound like innocents to you? I don't believe there are any, and even if there are, sacrifices have to be made in the interests of preserving order.”  
  
“Sieg's correct,” Leiji said, with a sigh. “None of us would have got where we are now if it weren't for the sacrifices of others. That's evident throughout history. Nothing comes for free. I'll support the use of Etherion.”  
  
“But Leiji!” Councillor Renka appealed to the older man, not the two young hotheads. “If we attack Caelum's soil without warning, it'll leave a permanent black mark on our record as Councillors! It'll establish a dangerous precedent! The diplomatic ramifications-”  
  
“The diplomatic ramifications will have to be dealt with,” Belno said. “The dead cannot be returned to life. These are idealistic brats. They need to understand reality. I vote for firing Etherion.”  
  
“Belno!” Org said. He sounded scandalised, as if she'd just spat on the table.  
  
“One more, then,” Siegrain said quietly.  
  
“The island is nearly forty miles off Caelum's coast,” Ultear said. “And they've clearly not missed it, if a gang of dark mages could build a colossal tower there without their navy ever noticing. It's not as though we're firing on their capital. There may be no Caelite citizens on the island at all.”  
  
Michello looked down, and lifted one hand a little.  
  
“Caelum's touchy,” Org said. Michello put both hands down flat on the table.

* * *

Cancer melted away into starlight. “Okay,” Lucy said, and pushed a few strands of still-damp hair out of her eyes. “Now we have to find Erza.” She reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Hunting Hounds! Canes Venatici!”  
  
The Hounds appeared in a flash, and Lucy had to bend over for a minute with her hands on her knees – she'd summoned too many spirits too fast. Misha tried to lick her face. Boo sat quietly, tail wrapped around his paws. Ryos reached out and tentatively petted one of his ears.  
  
Lucy straightened up. “We're looking for a girl in armour who uses strawberry shampoo. Can you help?”  
  
The Hounds split up. Boo trotted to the corridor Simon and Gajeel had taken, while Misha tore around the room like a maniac searching for other paths. Boo picked up Erza's scent first. He barked. Misha shot back to him, yelping, and then they both broke into a run. They hared off down the corridor.  
  
“She's gone that way! Come on!” Lucy, Juvia and Ryos followed the Hounds.


	20. Chapter 20

“On the matter of firing Etherion against the Tower of Heaven, the vote is four in support, and five against,” Org said. “Etherion will not be fired.”  
  
“This is a mistake,” Sieg said irritably. “If-”  
  
“Sieg, don't argue, the debate has gone on quite long enough!” Org snapped.  
  
Sieg threw up both hands, slouched down in his chair and said nothing. Ultear kicked him subtly under the table. Sieg wriggled further away.  
  
“Then we'll send in the Rune Knights,” Org said. “The Third and Fourth Legions are barracked at Gladiolus Town. That would be closest.”  
  
“Do you think two legions will be sufficient?” Belno asked.  
  
“It's a small island. I don't think more than two would fit,” said Leiji.  
  
Ultear kicked Sieg under the table, much less subtly. Sieg scrunched up as far away from her as he could get.  
  
“It'll take them two hours to reach the island. If we send for them to mobilise and prepare for a fortress assault, the details can be worked out while they're en route-”  
  
There was a knock on the door, and one of the amphibious administrators stuck his head in. “We've received a message,” he said. “It concerns the Tower of Heaven.” His voice was thin.  
  
“Go for it,” Sieg said. The frog didn't read it out. He hurried across the room and set the sheet of paper in front of Org. When Org glanced over the message, his face went white.  
  
“What is it?” Belno said.  
  
“It's from the ex-Phantom mages who followed Erza. They know who Jellal means to resurrect,” Org said. “Zeref. They mean to revive Zeref.”  
  
Leiji let out a little squawk of alarm. Belno's eyes widened. Yajima sighed and rubbed his forehead. Ultear covered her mouth with her sleeve.  
  
“And they say that Sieg already knows all about it,” Org said. He looked up. “Sieg? Is that true?” Everyone turned to look at Sieg.  
  
Sieg slouched down further in his chair and said, “Oh, man. Awkward.”  
  
“If you have any information you're withholding-” Belno started, her voice taut with fury.  
  
Sieg sighed, raised both hands in surrender and said, “Jellal is my twin brother.”  
  
“...what?” said Yajima.  
  
“Oh, God,” said Leiji.  
  
“How?” Org rasped.  
  
“You see, when a man's sperm fertilises a woman's egg, that makes something called a _zygote_ , and that zygote can split into two, which means you get – Shouldn't your parents have covered this?”  
  
“Sieg, you utter tool,” Belno said. “I suggest we reconsider firing Etherion. One of them is bad enough.”  
  
“Sieg, explain yourself, _now_ ,” Yajima said.  
  
Sieg shoved his hands into his pockets. “You already know from the other seven sites that a lot of people were abducted and enslaved to build the towers. Jellal was one of them. I assumed that he had died until I met Erza, shortly after my appointment. She mistook me for him and tried to kill me. It was adorable. Apparently there was some sort of revolt on the eighth site, some years ago; the slaves took over and Erza, another victim, was expelled for not wanting to take over their enslavers' plans to revive Zeref.” He took a deep breath. “Of course, I assumed their plan would fail due to lack of resources and that the group would self-destruct, as cults do tend to. It certainly sounded like a chaotic shambles. No organisation whatsoever. Mentioning it would just have been acutely embarassing and resulted in unneccessary carnage; from what Erza told me, any assault would only have ended in the new cultists killing as many Rune Knights as possible before committing mass suicide. Particularly if Jellal is in charge now.”  
  
The other councillors nodded slowly. Mass slaughter followed by suicidal pique sounded like exactly what Sieg would do in that situation. They were all well aware of the amount of damage Sieg could inflict, too.  
  
“I'm surprised they've managed to complete the tower at all. That can't have been cheap,” Sieg said.  
  
“Then you think they may have had outside help?”  
  
Sieg shrugged. “Possibly? There can't be many people who would want to see Zeref revived, but that's not the cult's true aim. They want to..." He waved a hand vaguely. "...cause chaos, destabilise the world, destroy the existing order. A sort of mania for revolution. Zeref is a means to an end. If Jellal succeeds – and he must be certain he'll succeed, to take these risks – then the consequences will be terrible. If he fails, he'll just move on to a different plan.”  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
“Sieg, when this is finished, you are going to be in a lot of trouble,” Org said. Sieg just shrugged. They weren't about to put him on trial or fire him. That would be scandalous.  
  
“You've been advocating firing Etherion at your own _brother_ ,” Yajima said, aghast.  
  
“He's hardly my brother,” Sieg said. “I haven't seen him since we were five and, more to the point, he'd happily kill all of us and is trying to resurrect Zeref.”  
  
“Agreed,” Belno said. “I suggest we reconsider firing Etherion. If there's even the slightest chance of Zeref's revival, we can't afford to do anything else. Eliminating a Sieg is just the cherry on the cake.”  
  
“Okay, ow,” Sieg said.  
  
“Agreed,” said Leiji.  
  
“Erza Scarlet and the mages who went to rescue her could still be in the tower,” Yajima said. “You can't seriously mean to fire Etherion before knowing that they've escaped!”  
  
Sieg kicked Ultear under the table.  
  
“They'll have realised there's a chance that the tower will be targeted with Etherion,” she said. “If they're capable of sending messages, they're capable of leaving. They know the risk they're taking. I support firing Etherion.”  
  
“So do I,” Michello said.  
  
“Likewise,” said Sieg. Five against four. A faint savage smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.  
  
“It's a hard decision,” Org said. “But... there are two separate threats here, and either one could justify the use of Etherion. In this situation, there's no alternative.”  
  
The other two councillors agreed, briefly, their faces drawn.  
  
Yajima shook his head. “This is a mistake. I can't support it.”  
  
“The vote is eight for and one against. The use of Etherion is hereby approved,” Org said.  
  
Yajima slid down from the table and walked away, suddenly feeling every one of his eighty-nine years. Sieg followed him.  
  
“Yajima, even though you don't agree with the method,” he said, “surely you agree that we can't allow Zeref's revival?”  
  
“At this point, it's not my place to argue,” Yajima said shortly. “I hope you're willing to accept the consequences of this action.”  
  
“Absolutely. I'll take full responsibility,” Sieg said.  
  
“We are talking about human _lives_ here, Sieg! Erza Scarlet, those ex-Phantom kids, the ex-slaves, your own _brother_! What would your parents say?”  
  
“Right now?” Sieg thought about that for a long moment, hands in his pockets, brow furrowed, before he hazarded “'Oh shit, we're stuck in these coffins'?”  
  
Yajima exploded. “Sieg, this is serious! All the lives that are about to be lost will be on your hands! Can you live with that?”  
  
“Etherion will be fired in one hour!” Org shouted, behind them. “Make the preparations!”  
  
“Let's find out,” Sieg said, and turned away.

* * *  
  
On the north side of the tower, on the fifth floor, there was a hall with three tiers of windows, a vaulted ceiling, doors opening onto a sunlight balcony and polished wooden floors. Gajeel's hobnailed boots scored deep scratches into the wood as he chased Simon through the hall.  
  
“Oi! Metalface! Get back here!” He lashed out, arm transforming into a metal bar mid-punch. Simon turned around and caught it. Gajeel yanked his arm back, but only managed to drag Simon forward a few steps.  
  
“I don't want to fight you!” Simon snapped.  
  
“Fair enough. I wouldn't want to fight me either,” Gajeel said.  
  
“This is a waste of time! We need to-”  
  
“Who's that 'we'?” Gajeel interrupted. “Damn, you're persistent, trying to pretend you're on our side.” Spikes erupted from his metal arm, knocking Simon back and pinning him to the ground. “We don't need trash on our side!”  
  
“What?” Simon yelled back. He hadn't heard Gajeel, because someone was suddenly murdering a guitar.  
  
“I said WE DON'T NEED TRASH ON OUR SIDE!”  
  
“WHAT?”  
  
“I SAID WE DON'T NEED - OI!” Gajeel roared, lifting his head. “KNOCK IT OFF!”  
  
A man appeared through the archway at the end of the hall. He was swinging and jerking his head so that his hair whipped all the way around in a perfect circle with every step, and playing a guitar at the same time. The fingers of his left hand were a blur on the fretboard, and the sound must have been magically amplified somehow because the onslaught of noise rattled the windowpanes.  
  
“Who's this douchebag?” Gajeel said.  
  
A few last ear-splitting notes, and the douchebag flung his head back. “Ayaow! Asssassins' guild, the Death's Head Caucus! Hey, we're the Skulls! Cool name, ain't it?” He played another couple of screeching notes and then dropped the pitch fast with the tremolo arm to make a noise like a bomb falling. “Vidaldus Taka of Trinity Raven! Welcome to my concert of hell, you bastards!”  
  
“Trinity Raven?” Simon gasped. “They're the Death's Head Caucus's strongest team! They assassinated all the officers of the Western Army in the Cabria War!”  
  
At the same moment, Gajeel said “Concert of hell sounds right! What do you think you're doing to that guitar? Is that supposed to be music?”  
  
“The music of the damned in hell!” Vidaldus shrieked. “I'll show you music! Dischord!” He swung his hair back and around - “Is this a death metal shampoo advert?” Gajeel said, looking around for cameramen - and played a loud, atonal riff. The floors and walls shook. The air distorted. The windows shattered. Simon clapped his hands over his ears. Gajeel braced his feet apart, turned his skin to iron scales and sneered as Vidaldus lifted his hands from the strings.  
  
“That's not music, that's just noise!” He looked down at Simon. “This asshole's just thrashing about on a guitar, right?”  
  
“I honestly don't care much about guitars,” Simon said.  
  
Gajeel and Vidaldus both stared at him. Gajeel retracted his arm, and pointed. “Go stand over there.”  
  
Simon obeyed, though not from docility so much as self-preservation instincts. Gajeel produced his own guitar.  
  
“...where were you keeping that?” Simon said. Gajeel ignored him.  
  
“Listen, you bastard,” he growled. “ _This_ is music!”

* * *

Over the patter of the Hounds' paws and their own running footfalls, Lucy heard a noise. It sounded like 'whoo-whoo!'  
  
“Did anyone else hear a train?” Ryos asked, and Juvia shouted “Get down!”  
  
They all threw themselves flat. Something shot past overhead. It was moving too fast for Lucy to make out any details – a brown blur, a trail of fire.  
  
“Gate of the Hounds, close!” she screamed, because they weren't combat spirits. Their attacker landed on a rafter where he could look down at them.  
  
“I am Fukuro, a warrior of justice! Whoo-whoo!”  
  
“It's an owl!” Lucy said. “An owl talking about justice and stuff! An owl with a rocket pack!” Actually, why would an owl need a rocket pack?  
  
“That guy wasn't at the hotel,” Ryos said. “Who is he?”  
  
“I am Fukuro, a warrior of justice! Whoo-whoo!” Fukuro repeated, a little louder. His head tipped ninety degrees to one side. “I am familiar with all of you. You committed the basest treachery, turning against your own teacher and master. Some evils cannot be permitted to exist in this world.”  
  
“What?” Ryos gasped.  
  
“Jose, Ryos, he means Jose,” Lucy said.  
  
“Oh yeah,” Ryos said, and relaxed.  
  
“Well done, you read the paper,” Lucy said. “Jose was a jerk, and this is what jerks get. Juvia!”  
  
“Water Slicer!”  
  
The attack slashed through the rafter, but Fukuro had already stepped backwards off it, landed on the floor and taken off again. Juvia spun and sent another volley of water arcs flying after him. Fukuro dodged and wove skilfully between them, right up until he wasn't fast enough. The last slicer cut through one of his rockets. It sputtered and went out. The other rocket spun him over and over until he crashed into the floor.  
  
“Great job, Juvia!” Lucy shouted. That was how you got to be one of the Element Four!  
  
It didn't stop Fukuro, though. As he rolled to his feet, he jettisoned the damaged rocket. It rolled away across the floor, and he stooped so that the other rocket was aimed directly at Juvia. “Missile Hoo Hoo Hoo!” Lucy and Ryos dived out of the way. Juvia didn't bother to move. The rocket blasted through her and exploded into a cloud of grey dust.  
  
Lucy scrambled backwards, spitting out gritty particles. “Juvia! Ryos!” Her eyes were watering. As the dust settled, she could make out Juvia, still standing where she had been. Her face was grey and dull and frozen in a look of surprise. The hole the rocket had made in her chest hadn't closed over. She raised one hand, excruciatingly slowly. Grey gloop dripped from the ends of her fingers and splattered on the floor.  
  
No way! What was that?  
  
(“Oh, the instant concrete! Clever,” Jellal observed, leaning against his gameboard. “I wondered what he wanted that for.”)  
  
“Your weaknesses were all known before you arrived here,” Fukuro said. “Now it's time to bring the hammer of justice swinging down on you! Whoo-whoo!”  
  
Juvia's palm opened slowly. Her lips moved with a rasp of grit on grit. “Water Sli-”  
  
Fukuro shot down the hall, energy charging around his fist. “Judgement Hoo!” Then he punched Juvia through the wall. The outside wall. For a moment Juvia was silhouetted against the low evening sun, in a cloud of brick and plaster fragments, and then she was gone. Lucy screamed.

* * *

“When your heart and body rust,” Gajeel sang, “shooby shooby-do-bop! The good flavour, it just doesn't come out-”  
  
“Woah! I never heard such crazy lyrics!” Vidaldus yelled. “And not crazy in a good way! They sound like they were written by the damned in heeeeelllll!” His tongue lolled out of his mouth. “Heeeellll! Ayaowww!” He strummed his guitar.  
  
“Shut up about hell!” Gajeel shouted back. “Hell hell hell – don't you have anything else to sing about? If you can call that singing! You're just yelling near a guitar!”  
  
(“And the Iron Dragon and Vidaldus Taka are having a sing-off! It's highly irregular, but just for today, we're going to let it slide,” Jellal said.)  
  
By this point, Simon had quietly left. Neither of them had noticed.  
  
“Your singing sounds like a chainsaw in a woodchipper,” Vidaldus informed him, and strummed wildly on his guitar. “Oh yeah! That's a sick burn! A sick burn to stoke the fires of hell!”  
  
“I like chainsaws!” Gajeel retorted. “What sort of wimp doesn't like chainsaws? And quit making that godawful noise! You're not playing music, you're just showing off techniques – there's _no_ soul in it!” He glared at Vidaldus.  
  
Vidaldus narrowed his eyes. “You think I need a new soul? How about I take _yours_ -”  
  
Then Juvia landed on the balcony outside, and went splat. Drops of wet concrete spattered Gajeel's face and tunic. He stopped dead, and slowly raised one hand to wipe a spot away.  
  
Vidaldus burst out laughing. “Judgement from above, sent by the devil himself!”  
  
Juvia was struggling to pull herself back together. Half-formed, grey-faced, still a puddle below the waist, she pushed herself up on dissolving hands. Her eyes opened.  
  
“Lockser, what the fuck-” Gajeel started. Juvia's head ground around to look past him. In the far wall, a pipe exploded. A torrent of water burst through the wall and splashed across the floor. Juvia reached out and dragged it towards her.   
  
“Lockser – ugh, that's disgusting,” Gajeel said. “You're getting water on my boots! Ugh!” He tried to kick the water away. That didn't work.  
  
Juvia had finished renewing her water body. She stood and stormed away from the heap of wet concrete. She walked straight past Gajeel, who grabbed at her shoulder. “Oi! You splatted me in bits of your gross soggy ass, Lockser! Are you going to apologise for that?”  
  
Juvia slid out of his grip. “No! Juvia is going to help Lucy and Ryos!”  
  
Vidaldus blocked her path as she headed for the archway. “Hey, water girl, where you going? Keep your fine self down here with us-”  
  
“Water Lock!”  
  
“Rock?” Bubbles erupted from his mouth. “Girl, are you a rocker too?” Juvia shoved the bubble out of the way and moved on.  
  
“Ayaow! That's harsh!” The rocker's voice was loud and raucous and unmuffled. Juvia spun around. The Water Lock had disappeared. He was standing there, arms out, hair draped across his face.  
  
“Who are you? How did you do that?”  
  
“Vidaldus Taka, Trinity Raven! We're the Skulls' biggest band, yeah!” He flipped all six feet of his hair. “A bit of water's the best thing for the hair, bright eyes! If you wash it out with shampoo every day, you strip out the natural oils, you get me?”  
  
“Juvia does not care! How did you destroy Juvia's Water Lock?”  
  
“It's the hair, babe,” he said. “It absorbs any liquid – but no alcohol or oil, yeah? That'd be bad.”  
  
“Water isn't effective?” Juvia gasped.  
  
“I really think I saw this guy in a shampoo advert one time,” Gajeel said. Gajeel was not being helpful.  
  
Juvia's water started to boil. She would just have to overwhelm him! “Sierra!” She rushed Vidaldus, meaning to blast straight past him. Vidaldus's hair whipped out and drove itself through Juvia's body like spears.  
  
“Ugh!” It was so gross, feeling his hair absorbing her water! Juvia slid aside, trying to free herself, but there was too much of it coiling around and through her like seaweed. She couldn't get away! Juvia shrieked and threw herself backwards, scrambling to get free of Vidaldus's hair. Massive chunks of her body were gone. The rest was linked only by thin strands of water. Juvia hurriedly drew more water into herself and rebuilt her body again. “Gajeel, kill him, Juvia needs to get back to Lucy!”  
  
“Oi, don't be bossy,” Gajeel said. “Ashley'll be fine.”  
  
“ _Gajeel_!”  
  
Vidaldus was seething. Literally. His face had gone lobster red, and steam drifted in great clouds from his hair. “You bitch! Don't you know never to wash in boiling water? It damages the roots!” He brought both hands down on the strings of his guitar. “That's the cardinal sin of haircare! Rock of Incubus!”  
  
The high screeching notes felt like they were splitting Juvia's head open. Gajeel howled.  
  
“Grragh! Stop it, you bastard!”  
  
“What's wrong?” Juvia gasped. Gajeel doubled over, clutching at his head. “Gajeel! What is it?” She reached for his arm. He knocked her back.

“No! Fuck off!”  
  
Juvia retreated. What was happening? The shrill sound hurt her ears. The walls and floor hummed, and it was unpleasant feeling the soundwaves ripple through her, but it wasn't _that_ painful. Did Gajeel just really hate this sort of music?  
  
Gajeel straightened up. “Hey, water bitch!” A psychotic grin stretched across his face. “I'm going to kick you down into the depths of hell!”  
  
“Gajeel!” Juvia nearly stamped her feet. “This is not the-" Realisation dawned. "Oh, no!” Gajeel was being mind-controlled! What should she do? She couldn't escape past Vidaldus – she would just end up absorbed into his hair and still unable to help Lucy, and that was too horrible to even think about. Even if she could find a way to escape, Gajeel could be compelled to follow her and attack Lucy and Ryos, or even to harm himself.  
  
She had to find a way to put both of them down, quickly.  
  
“Water Slicer!”

* * *

“That's sensible,” Jellal said aloud. The Dragon Slayer posed more of a threat to Vidaldus, and it was practical to let the water-woman wear herself down against her companion. It was a better decision than he would have expected from the rocker, at least. “Well, that's it for the Dragon Slayer.” He flicked over the steel-grey dragon token. The water-woman was in a tricky situation, but she could still extricate herself. That would be interesting.  
  
Lucy Ashley and the kid versus Fukuro – Lucy had shown some intelligence in that guild war debacle, but he doubted she could think herself out of that one. The ice mage had just run into Sho, Millianna and Wally - “Where's Erza, you bastards?!” “That's so weird! We were just about to ask you that!” said Millianna - but stepping over their frozen corpses wouldn't slow him down that much. Simon was still bumbling about as the world's least efficient traitor. And Erza...  
  
Erza was climbing the stairs to the eighteenth floor, four storeys below. Both her falchions were raised, ready to ward off an attack. At the top of the steps, she looked around, brow furrowed. Where were the enemies?  
  
Jellal looked to see where Ikaruga was, and smiled suddenly. He activated the tannoy system on the eighteenth floor. As the mouths opened on the walls Erza jumped and spun around on the spot, both swords held high.  
  
“Erza, they don't bite,” he said. “Your allies are in trouble, you know. The ice mage, the Dragon Slayer, the water woman and the summoner.”  
  
Erza's eyes went wide. “Why are they here? What did you do?”  
  
“It's nothing to do with me,” he said. “They came of their own accord. Did you not realise they would try to rescue you?” He watched the rapid rise and fall of her breastplate and her knuckles whitening on the hilts of her swords. “They've run into my obstacles. Bad luck for them, they're not quite up to scratch. If Lucy Ashley and that little boy survive the next five minutes, I'll be astonished. Still, they brought it on themselves, right, Erza? You didn't ask them to come and if they get themselves killed trying to help you, that's hardly your fault.”  
  
Erza said nothing.  
  
“I'm just curious. What are you going to do?” Jellal said. “Will you come and try to kill me, or will you go to save your friends? Because that worked _so_ well last time.”  
  
“You're lying. They're not here,” she said.  
  
“That's possible,” Jellal agreed. His smile widened. “Are you going to risk it?”  
  
There was a long moment of silence. Then Erza cursed. Her voice cracked. “Jellal, you bastard!” She spun around and clattered back down the stairs. She was running down a corridor on the seventeenth floor, where the light of the setting sun dyed her armour blood-red and the wind through the broad windows whipped her hair about her face, when she saw someone standing in her way. She skidded to a stop.  
  
“Who are you?”  
  
The woman blocking Erza's path lifted her head. She wore layers of kimono – black, red and white, patterned with skulls – and a faint inscrutable porcelain-doll smile, and she was holding a sword as long as she was tall. Cherry blossom swirled around her, caught in a perpetual wind.  
  
“Greetings. I hope that you were not in a hurry to move on.”  
  
Jellal grinned.

* * *

“Ice-Make: Shield!”  
  
Sho's card projectiles exploded against the ice wall blocking the hallway. Cracks spread across its shiny surface. Gray was already sliding into the next stance. Hands at his hip, fist against one open palm, bringing both hands forward and down to the ground. “Ice-Make: Geys-”  
  
It was lucky that he was stooping down. A blast struck the ice wall just above his head. It came from behind him. Gray whirled around as Wally materialised behind him, gun first. Another fusillade of explosions echoed from behind the ice wall as Sho began to blast through it.  
  
“Polygon Sphere!” From the chest down, Wally came apart into blocks which closed tight around Gray's arms and slammed him against the wall. Gray kicked out, but couldn't reach him. Wally took aim.  
  
“Ice-Make: Gauntlet!” The ice expanding around Gray's forearms forced the polygon spheres open, and he dropped to the ground. He closed the distance between them and knocked the gun barrel aside just as Wally fired. The bullet hit the ice wall just under the ceiling, knocking a massive chunk free. Ice shards rained down on them. As Wally's body reformed, Gray punched him right in the jaw. Wally staggered back. “Ice-Make: Saucer!” Gray created a disc of ice, set it spinning like the blade of a buzzsaw and launched it at Wally.  
  
Wally dissolved into blocks again. The disc flashed through the space where he had been, bit a slice out of the stone floor, and shattered into razor-sharp shrapnel.  
  
“32 Frames Per Second Attack!”  
  
The barrage of blocks knocked Gray down and sent him skidding across the floor until he slammed into the bottom of his own ice wall.  
  
Wally reformed and aimed his gun at Gray, then stopped. He lowered his gun. Gray looked up just in time to see Millianna slide through the gap at the top of the shield. “Hi, Wally!” And then she jumped. “Whee!” She landed squarely on Gray.  
  
Gray's eyes bugged out of his head. He wheezed and thrashed and managed to yank one arm free from under Millianna's weight.  
  
“Ice-Make: Spray Bottle!” Made one-handed, it was weak and flimsy, with a bottle like blown glass. There wasn't time to worry about it. Gray aimed it squarely at Millianna's face and pulled the trigger. A fine cloud of ice crystals spurted out.  
  
“Yow!” Millianna scrambled back and hid behind Wally. Gray threw the spray bottle aside and rolled to his feet just as the ice shield finally collapsed. On the other side, Sho fanned out another dozen cards. Gray spun and set his back against the wall, facing off with all three of them.  
  
“I don't care how brainwashed you guys are!” he shouted, and slammed his fist against his open palm, ready to cast another spell. “I won't hold back against anyone trying to hurt my friends!”

* * *

This woman in the kimono must be one of Jellal's three extra players. “I have no business with you. Leave,” Erza said.  
  
“Oh, my. How brusque,” she said. “I am called Ikaruga.” She drew her sword a few inches out of the scabbard. Erza saw the sunset gleam on the blade, and then her armour crumbled into pieces. Erza cried out in shock. Her swords fell apart, leaving her gripping nothing but the bare hilts. The pieces rained down around her feet. “That was by way of a greeting. Let me guess – you didn't see me move?” Erza stared at her, eyes wide. So fast... She was startled, strangely, by how cold it was, this high up. “You were so concerned with reaching Jellal, you didn't see the blade flashing all around you. A ghost passed by me / A breath of wind, a whisper / And went unnoticed... I am no mere passerby on the road.”  
  
“Understood,” Erza said. Her eyes narrowed. “You're an enemy.” She requipped into the Heaven's Wheel armour. The hilts of her twin swords settled into her hands.  
  
Ikaruga smiled faintly. “That's much better. Here I come!”  
  
Their blades clashed. It was a relief tobe fighting, instead of thinking; if you had to think about a sword fight, you were already dead. There was only slash against parry, the crash of their swords meeting jarring up to her shoulders, a momentary glimpse of Ikaruga's faint porcelain-doll smile. Ikaruga made a thrust, throwing her whole body behind it, arm extended and scabbard held out behind as a counterbalance. Erza somersaulted over her blade. “Circle Sword!” A ring of swords materialised between them and scythed down towards Ikaruga.  
  
“Mugetsu Ryu! Yaksha's Empty Flash!” Ikaruga leapt high and spun in the air. Her blade flashed. Erza's swords shattered. Fragments spiked into the floor all around Ikaruga. Erza gasped, and then a line of fire opened up across her shoulder. She cried out. The Heaven's Wheel armour tumbled down in pieces. It was if a wind just tore it away. Ikaruga sliced upwards, cutting the air. “Mugetsu Ryu: Garuda Flames!” A onrushing wall of fire erupted in the wake of her blade.  
  
“Flame Empress!” Erza caught the firestorm on her crossed gauntlets, but the heat seared her face and the concussive force flung her back and sent her skidding on the floor. She staggered to her feet.  
  
“A flame-resistant armour? I'm impressed that you managed to requip it quickly enough to defend yourself,” Ikaruga said. The Flame Empress armour fell apart. “A pity it isn't more durable. Come now-” Her smile widened a little. “You won't last using such flimsy armours.”  
  
There was nothing else she could do. Erza requipped into her most powerful armour. She felt it drag on her magic immediately, the power required to maintain its defensive fields and just to move easily under the weight of the thick black plates. Spikes ranged across the breastplate and along the greaves and gauntlets. Erza gripped the handle of the massive club that came with it. Red light blazed in her eyes. “Nobody has seen this armour before and lived. Witness it and despair: the Purgatory Armour!”  
  
Three seconds later the Purgatory Armour was dust. Erza tumbled to the floor. Ikaruga looked back over her shoulder.  
  
“You understand now, yes? No matter how much power you sink into your silly armours, they can't stand up to my blade.”  
  
Erza lay on the floor, in the shattered remnants of her strongest armour, and gasped for breath. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. “How disappointing,” Ikaruga said. “You would be wise to surrender.”  
  
With a surge of acid humiliation, Erza realised that Jellal must be watching this. He would be so amused. Panic flooded through her. She didn't know what to do! There wasn't anything she _could_ do!  
  
“Lightning Empress,” she rasped, and the armour formed around her. Erza climbed to her feet, leaning on the spear. Ikaruga lifted her sword. She was still smiling. Erza shifted her weight and brought her spear down. It was sliced to pieces even as the electricity burst from its twin points and zeroed in on Ikaruga's raised blade. Her sword flashed again and the lightning fell away, but by then Erza was already throwing herself out of the window.


	21. Erza's Story

Jellal watched Erza drop down the side of the tower, requip into the Black Wing armour and land on a balcony. He scowled, and then pointedly switched his attention elsewhere. Lucy Ashley and the five-year-old (ten? twelve? whatever) were stuck with Fukuro. The two weakest members of the group versus the mad owl. Honestly, he didn't think they stood a chance.

* * *

“Open, Gate of the Great Bear!” Lucy shouted. Ursa Major appeared in a blaze of starlight. Lucy's knees gave way. She dropped to the ground, but still managed to point at Fukuro and yell “Ursa Major, that guy's kidnapped one of my friends and he wants to kill her!”  
  
“What? That son of a bitch!”  
  
'Friend' was probably too strong a word to use for a Fairy, but the important thing was it got Ursa Major on her side. The bear spun to face Fukuro. Fukuro pulled the other rocket, the damaged on, off his back and hefted it.  
  
“Everyone knows that the weakness of a stellar spirit is its summoner. Missile Hoo Hoo Hoo!” He threw the rocket towards Lucy and Ryos like a javelin. It would have arced high over Ursa Major's head, but bears had a lot more reach when they reared up than Fukuro knew. Ursa Major smashed the rocket to the ground. More concrete dust puffed out into her eyes. She snarled.  
  
“That wasn't magic, anyway! That was just throwing things!” Lucy yelled.  
  
Ursa Major was shaking her head furiously to get the concrete dust out of her eyes. Light boiled up around Fukuro's fist and, with a yell of “Judgement Hoo!”, he punched the bear in the side.  
  
Ursa Major jolted sideways a few steps. Her claws dug furrows in the stone floor. She spat out blood and curses. “Assfestering dickmuppet!”  
  
Fukuro backed away. Ursa Major closed with him, a blur of teeth and claws.  
  
(“Whoops. That's a rather nasty mistake from the bear,” Jellal said. He was holding Simon's discarded token to his mouth like a microphone.)  
  
Fukuro managed to catch her forelimbs and was shoved slowly towards the floor as her greater weight bore down on him. If he let go of either of her arms, he still wouldn't be able to charge up another Judgement Hoo before she slashed him to pieces.  
  
“Good job, Ursa Major!” Lucy yelled.  
  
“That's admirable durability,” Fukuro agreed. “Few miscreants have ever survived my judgement so well.”  
  
“Thanks, creepy naked owl man!” Ursa Major said. “What are you anyway, a nudist? Are you going for the world record in making me sick to my ass? Put on a damn _shirt_ -”  
  
“Capture Hoo Hoo Hoo!”  
  
Ursa Major's voice was cut off as Fukuro's beak yawned open and he swallowed her head. Lucy shrieked. Ursa Major thrashed and hollered. Lucy caught a few words - “fetid sack of weasels!” were among them – and then Fukuro twisted his head a little to one side, a ripple ran down his back, and he sucked more of Ursa Major into his maw.  
  
“Gate of the Bear, close!” Lucy yelled. Ursa Major vanished. For a second Lucy and Ryos had a really great view down Fukuro's gullet before his face snapped back together like elastic.  
  
“Uh. Ew,” Lucy said, and then, to Ryos, “Run!”  
  
They spun around and fled. Fukuro chased after them, making rocket noises. They raced blindly through halls and corridors, hearing his pounding footsteps behind them, and ran into a dead end.  
  
“Oh, no!” said Ryos.  
  
“You cannot escape justice, evildoers!” Fukuro shouted.  
  
There were doors on either side of the hallway, but when Lucy yanked them open she found they only led to small apartments.  
  
“Lucy,” Ryos said. “Lucy, if I do something, do you promise not to tell Gajeel?”  
  
“Yes! Absolutely!” Lucy said, and slid to her knees. She was leaning on the wall for support. Too many spirits, too fast. What could she possibly throw at him? He was fast enough to dodge a long-range attack and she didn't think she could fire Caelum at this point anyway. Any close-combat spirit she tried would get eaten!  
  
Fukuro appeared at the end of the hallway. He tipped his head on one side. “Whoo-whoo!” Ryos drew in a deep breath. What were they going to _do_ -  
  
“Shadow Dragon's Roar!”

* * *

“Double Wave!” The crashing water lifted Gajeel off his feet but didn't slow him down. He drove a metal bar through Juvia's chest. She slid around, meaning to strike him across the chest while he was overextended, and Vidaldus's hair lashed out to stop her going too far. She had to hop back and hurriedly rebuild her abdomen, and then Gajeel put another metal bar through it. Juvia stamped her feet in frustration, splashing water. The room was still ankle-deep from the broken pipe.  
  
“Hey! What are you doing, Lockser?” Gajeel swiped off the top of her head. “Why aren't you taking any damage?”  
  
“Gajeel, Juvia is made of water!” Juvia shouted back. “Water Slicer!”  
  
Gajeel caught the water arc on his forearm. “Gihihi! Water can't damage steel!” Then, as he raised his arm and clenched his fist – muscles rippled under his metal skin – his scales cracked. “What?” Gajeel said. “Fucking hell!”  
  
“Water at sufficiently high pressure will cut even steel,” Juvia said calmly. Inwardly, she was freaking out. She'd barely scratched him!  
  
Gajeel took another swing at her. Juvia slid away and slashed her hand through the air to fire another Water Slicer at Vidaldus. At the end of the arc, she closed her hand into a fist and drew it in tight to her chest. A wave leapt up from the floor beside him. It should have knocked him flat, but his hair shot out and sucked all the water in.  
  
“Woah, woah! Didn't I tell you that wouldn't work?” She couldn't win that way!  
  
Gajeel was still angry. “That never happened the other times we fought! You been holding back on me, Lockser?!”  
  
“No!” Juvia lied, and changed the subject. She pointed at Vidaldus. “Gajeel is being mind-controlled!”  
  
“Am not,” Gajeel said. “What are you even talking for? If you're not ready to rock, then you can just go die!”  
  
“Gajeel does not like this kind of music at all,” Juvia snapped. “Juvia has played records for Gajeel before and he broke them!”  
  
“Did not,” said Gajeel.  
  
“...Juvia is not sure now if Gajeel is mind-controlled or only argumentative,” Juvia said.  
  
“You can't stop my Rock of Incubus by talking!” Vidaldus shouted. “This rock's unstoppable! Oh, yeah!”  
  
“Juvia did not imagine that she could,” Juvia snapped. “She only needed a distraction!” Vidaldus looked at her, and then down. While Juvia had been arguing with Gajeel, she had drawn all the water covering the floor into her body. The water pumping from the broken pipe pooled around her feet and was sucked into her with a noise like water going down a drain.  
  
“Hey! Death metal dragon, over here!" Vidaldus yelled. Gajeel moved to stand in front of him.  
  
“Hey! Yeah!” Vidaldus strummed a few frenetic bars. “You think you can get at me through this guy?”  
  
“That is not actually Juvia's plan,” she said. She lifted both hands, thumbs and forefingers together, and sighted on Gajeel's chest. “Water Cannon!”  
  
The blast threw Gajeel backwards, off his feet, and bowled him over and over. Vidaldus yelled, and then Gajeel smashed into him like a cannonball. They both slammed into the far wall. The floor shook. Juvia stopped the cannon, but didn't lower her hands.  
  
Gajeel snarled, spat out water and clambered to his feet. Vidaldus didn't move. Gajeel picked at his soggy tunic and scowled. “You got me-”  
  
“Water Cannon!”  
  
Gajeel was knocked back, spluttering. “Oi! Quit it!”  
  
“Juvia is very angry at Gajeel!” Juvia shouted. “She needs to help Lucy and Gajeel has already wasted too much of her time!” She spun on her heel and marched out of the room.  
  
“Hey!” Gajeel yelled after her. “Hey! Lockser!”  
  
Juvia didn't turn around. Gajeel growled and stomped after her.

* * *

A maelstrom of shadows burst out of Ryos's mouth. It hit Fukuro like a tidal wave, bowled him over and flung him down the hallway.  
  
Lucy gasped, and yelped, and clapped her hands to her face, and her eyes bugged out of her face. “You're a Dragon Slayer?”  
  
(Jellal recoiled from the table in shock. “That little brat's a Dragon Slayer?” He snatched up the teddy-bear gamepiece he'd assigned to Ryos. “That makes his token completely inappropriate!”)  
  
“Don't tell Gajeel!” Ryos said.  
  
“Gajeel doesn't know?”  
  
“No, Gajeel doesn't want anyone else to know!”  
  
“Why- oh, he's ridiculous,” Lucy snapped. Did he think it would make him less special? Her hiss of exasperation turned to a shriek when she saw Fukuro getting up. “Come on!” She threw open the nearest door and stumbled in, Ryos close behind.  
  
(Upstairs, Jellal hurriedly reshaped the teddy-bear into a dragon and coloured it black with permanent marker. It was a very small dragon. Well, the boy was a very small mage. He would claim it was intentional.)  
  
“Open, Gate of the Serpent! Serpens!” Even opening one silver gate was too much effort. Lucy dropped to her knees. “Ryos!” She gestured frantically. Ryos grabbed Serpens and tossed him over the top of the door, and then dragged Lucy to the window.  
  
“You're so heavy!”  
  
“Hey!” Lucy roused herself enough to smack him. Outside the window, it was a drop of several storeys onto rock. There was no escape there. Lucy turned around as Fukuro appeared in the doorway behind them.  
  
“It's time I brought the hammer of justice swinging down on you two.”  
  
Oh crap, he had a hammer?  
  
As Fukuro stooped to get through the door, Serpens dropped onto the back of his neck. Fukuro let out a startled “Whoo-whoo!” Serpens twisted and tried to bite, but his fangs couldn't sink through Fukuro's feathers.  
  
“Oh, no!” Lucy gasped.  
  
Fukuro dragged Serpens off his back and held him up in front of his beak. “Capture Hoo Hoo Hoo!”  
  
For a moment Serpens' tail whipped around and tried to coil around Fukuro's arm, but then he was gone. Fukuro slurped him down like a strand of spaghetti. His face turned strangely flat. His beak warped and spread across his face. Patches of his skin and feathers turned to scales.  
  
“Oh, ew!” Lucy said, clutching at Ryos. Did he absorb abilities from the things he swallowed?  
  
This could backfire. This could backfire really, really badly.  
  
Then Fukuro yelped. He clutched at his throat with both hands.  
  
“What's happening?” Ryos demanded.  
  
“I think a snake's biting him in the esophagus,” Lucy said, and added a silent 'ew'. Anything as big as Ursa Major, or a person, wouldn't be able to move, but Serpens was a lot more nimble. Fukuro doubled over. “Ryos, now!”  
  
Black energy boiled up around Ryos's fist. “Shadow Dragon's Club!”  
  
It could have been one of Gajeel's attacks. The club smashed Fukuro into the floor, which cratered under the impact. The whole room shook. Cracks crazed across the solid stone floor as if it were glass. Plaster fell from the walls and ceiling.  
  
Ryos sagged against the windowsill and wheezed. Lucy had scrunched down on the floor and thrown her arms over her head to protect her hair from the plaster dust. She uncoiled, slowly. “...is he staying down?”  
  
“Um,” Ryos said. He thought about it. Then he whacked Fukuro again. “Shadow Dragon's Club!”  
  
Lucy yelped. Downstairs, fragments of ceiling crashed to the floor.  
  
“I think he's staying down now,” Ryos said. Fukuro groaned. Serpens spilled abruptly out of his beak. Oh, ew.  
  
Lucy let out a long breath and crawled over to Serpens. “I'm sorry, baby, that was horrible, wasn't it? What a nasty owl!” Over her shoulder, she demanded, “How long have you been a Dragon Slayer?”  
  
“Um, most of my life,” Ryos said. “You're babytalking a snake.”  
  
“Serpens did really well,” Lucy said. “You're my clever little trooper, yes you are!” He was also gross and slimy. Ew. Poor Serpens. “So how did you get here?” She'd assumed Ryos just lived in Oak Town. “Did you have a dragon for a dad? Did he disappear like Gajeel's and the Fairy's?”  
  
“No. He died,” Ryos said.  
  
“Oh,” Lucy said. “I'm sorry.”  
  
“He was sick,” Ryos said, a little defensively, and took a step back. Weird. Maybe dying was really embarrassing for dragons. Ryos looked down at the floor. Something in his face made Lucy feel really uncomfortable, so she switched her attention back to Serpens. “Are you okay? I'll get you a tray of water to soak in when we get back to the hotel. Will that make you feel better?” Serpens butted his head against her arm. “...are you getting owl spit on me on purpose?” Serpens stared at her with flat black eyes. “Okay, I'll send you back,” Lucy said. “Gate of the Serpent, close!” Serpens vanished. Lucy climbed wearily to her feet and went to scrub her arms clean in the bathroom. The showerhead had burst and was spraying water against the wall. A pair of shelves had collapsed, tipping old soaps and a half-empty toothpaste tube onto the floor. Lucy splashed water on her face, trying to wake herself up a little, and leant on the rim of the sink. It cracked. Lucy hopped backwards with a yelp. That Roar thing was rivalling Taurus's Rampage for collateral damage. Wow. She'd never have guessed that Ryos had that much power...  
  
Wait.  
  
Juvia, Gajeel, Ryos. Two Dragon Slayers, and a woman Lucy was pretty sure was unstoppable when she was serious. Did that mean... did that make her...  
  
She shot out of the bathroom.  
  
“ _Am I the weakest mage in our group_?”

* * *

The massive column of magical circles and glyphs rotated slowly and unevenly. Michello and Org watched from a balcony, half-listening to the snatches of technobabble that drifted up.  
  
“Target acquired,” one of the cloaked and hooded technicians reported.  
  
“Adjusting spatial coordinates-”  
  
“The terrain differences are complicating the wavelength calculations. That'll raise issues with the coordinate calibrations.”  
  
“Up the altitude a bit more,” another one suggested.  
  
“Magical charge at sixty percent.”  
  
A ripple ran down the height of the column, and the magical circles began to whirl all together, like a great dynamo, whipping up a wind that spun around the chamber and whipped the technicians' cloaks about.  
  
“Etherion system integration, complete!”  
  
“Twenty-seven minutes until firing!”  
  
Org sighed. “That we would be driven to a decision like this now of all times, with the council chairman so ill-”  
  
“There's no helping it,” Michello said. “In the chairman's absence, executive responsibility falls to the nine councillors. That's us.” He looked sideways. “You shouldn't worry so, Org. Certainly, this may be an unannounced attack on another nation's territory, but situations like this are provided for in article twenty-seven, clause four of the National Security Act.”  
  
“This is not about the petty legal implications!” Sweat trickled down Org's forehead. “This is about deploying Etherion!”  
  
“Zeref was the devil incarnate,” Michello said. “We can only hope Etherion is enough to destroy this gang of fools.”  
  
Lower down, Sieg was staring out at the column, hands clasped tightly behind his back.  
  
“It's almost time, Sieg,” Ultear said, padding up silently behind him. “The hopes of eight years will finally be realised.”  
  
“Aren't you afraid, Ultear?”  
  
“Not at all. I have complete faith in you, Sieg.”  
  
“Oh, of course,” Sieg drawled. “And, of course, it's not your life that's in danger here.”  
  
“Indeed not," Ultear agreed cheerfully.  
  
“Personally, I find myself a little nervous,” Sieg said. “If this fails, I die.”  
  
Yajima, listening, frowned. If they failed, he died?  
  
“But this is worth putting my life on the line for. After all... this is my dream.”  
  
“Of course,” Ultear said, and smiled a faint sardonic smile.

* * *

“Twenty-five minutes remaining,” Jellal said. “I suppose I'll be saying goodbye to you too, soon, Siegrain.”

* * *

“I don't care how brainwashed you guys are!” Gray shouted. “I won't hold back against anyone trying to hurt my friends!”  
  
“You're wasting your time, boy,” Wally said.  
  
“Erza's not your friend!” Sho said. His voice rose to a scream. “She was our friend first and she betrayed us!”  
  
“Sho. Composure,” said Wally.  
  
“She went crazy from her magic and decided she didn't need the rest of us any more!” Sho said, totally failing to have any form of composure. “She blew up the ships so we were trapped on the island and then she ran away and joined your guild!”  
  
“Sho, you got to be more dandy,” Wally said. “The last few guards torched the ships. Erza was gone before then.”  
  
“If there were guards near the boats then we'd have seen them,” Millianna pointed out. “I think it was an accident because Erza was still very new at the magic thing then, but Jellal said he saw her there.” She scuffed a boot across the ground. “We know why she would want to leave, but it was still hurtful. We thought she was dead until Jellal told us she was at your guild!”  
  
“Does that sound like the Erza you knew?” Gray demanded. A long-ago memory flashed through his head. That old rivalry he'd had with her, before she far outstripped all of them, before he accepted that she had far outstripped him. He'd tracked her down to the lakeshore. “So this is where you've been hiding, Erza! Today's the day I kick your ass-”  
  
She'd looked around. Tears glistened in her one eye.  
  
“Urk!” Gray leapt backwards. Erza stood up, brushing the tears away with the back of her hand.  
  
“You again... you just don't learn, do you? Come and try it, then.” Gray retreated a few steps instead. Erza frowned. “Are you surrendering?”  
  
“Uh? No!” Gray said. “Hey... why are you always on your own?”  
  
Erza looked down at the ground. “Other people make me uneasy. I prefer being on my own.”  
  
“If you like being alone, then why were you crying?” he'd demanded. Her eyes widened. She'd looked so startled, and ashamed.  
  
Gray bared his teeth. “You guys don't know Erza at all!”  
  
Sho yelled with fury and flung another dozen exploding cards at him. Gray clapped his hands together. “Ice-Make: Pane!” A thin wall of ice trapped the card projectiles before they could reach him. Sho cried out. The cards exploded. The impact blew Sho off his feet and blasted the rest of them with ice shrapnel. Gray rolled smoothly under it and bounded back to his feet. “Ice-Make: La-” But before he could finish the spell, a cord wrapped tightly around his chest and bound one of his arms behind his back.  
  
“Nice, Millianna!” Wally said, getting a pleased “Meow!” in response. Gray gestured, one-handed.  
  
“Ice-Make: Hammer!” Nothing happened.  
  
“Millianna's ropes cut off all your magic,” Wally said. “There's no point trying.”  
  
“I don't have time to be messing around with you!” Gray yelled. “I'm taking Erza back with me!”  
  
“You just don't give up, do you, boy?” Wally said. His arm transformed. “Polygon Shot!” He fired a fusillade of square blocks at Gray.  
  
“Don't think I've forgiven you for that cheap trick at the hotel!” Gray yelled. He dived under the barrage, rolled, and came up within Wally's reach. He knocked the rifle barrel aside and punched Wally in the face. “Argh! Ow!”  
  
“Wally!” Millianna gasped, as Gray leapt backwards, shaking his hand in pain. Wally's hat was knocked off. He stumbled back into the wall. Gray kicked him away and snatched up a shard of ice from the floor. The sharp edge slashed easily through the magical binding. “Hah!”  
  
Millianna made a confused noise. “He was wearing pants a second ago, wasn't he?”  
  
“Dandy men wear pants!” Wally rasped, pulling himself up on the wall.  
  
Millianna clapped her hands. “Nekosoku Tube!” Another magical cord materialised between her hands.  
  
“Ice-Make: Pillar!”  
  
A column of ice erupted from the floor, and Millianna's rope wrapped around that, instead. Gray grabbed the end, darted out from behind the pillar and flung the cord around her. “Yeek!” As Gray yanked the cord tight Millianna tumbled backwards, tangled up in her own rope.  
  
“Millianna!” Wally shouted. Millianna was distracted. She was batting at the free end of the cord. “Polygon Attack!” Wally transformed into blocks and launched himself at Gray.  
  
“Ice-Make: Fishnet!”  
  
A frigid wind knocked the blocks aside and coated them in ice. Gray jabbed both hands downwards, and the blocks smashed into the floor.  
  
“Stop it!” Sho was clambering to his feet. “Erza's ours! She was ours first! Why are you trying to steal her?”  
  
“Erza needs to be with us, at Fairy Tail, so she doesn't have to cry,” Gray ground out. “And I won't tolerate anyone trying to stop me!” He grabbed one of the frozen blocks, wound up and hurled it at Sho's head. Sho hit the ground again.  
  
“Gray! What are you doing?”  
  
Gray whirled around. “Erza!”  
  
“Erza! Yay!” Millianna clapped her hands.  
  
“Gray, why are you here?” Erza was wearing her Black Wing armour, and her face was white with anger. “Go back! You shouldn't have come here!”  
  
“What?” Gray scowled. “What sort of crap is that? I'm not going anywhere!”  
  
At the same moment, Lucy said “Great idea! Let's all go right now!”  
  
Gray looked around. “Oh. You again.”  
  
“We heard yelling, we thought it was probably you,” Lucy said. Ryos was lurking behind her. “Have you seen Juvia? Or Gajeel? I'd settle for Gajeel.”  
  
“Why are they even here? They're not even in our guild,” Erza said, looking at Lucy and Ryos. “This is my problem. I don't want any of you involved!”  
  
“We're already involved,” Gray said.  
  
“I don't care. Go back!”  
  
“You know what they're doing here, right?” Lucy asked. “We should all leave!”  
  
Erza's face hardened as she turned towards Lucy. “This isn't your business. You shouldn't have come here to begin with.”  
  
For a moment, Lucy was irritated, because they'd come a long way and put themselves in danger to save Erza, but then she recognised what Erza was doing. She's done it herself. You put on a cold face and pretended to be stronger than you were. Erza's face was white, and the hand on her sword hilt trembled. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. She wasn't even doing it very well.  
  
Lucy modulated her tone a little. “Why don't we form a temporary alliance? We all have a vested interest in you not dying. Why not work together? I know we're not in your guild, but this Jellal guy's seriously crazy. We'd help you.”  
  
“I will take responsibility for it,” Erza said. A tremor ran through her. The wings on her back rustled. “All of you, leave.”  
  
“That's not like you, Erza,” Gray said. “Usually you'd say 'follow me, and no arguing!'” He took a step closer to her, away from the ex-Phantoms, and said quietly, “Even _you're_ allowed to ask for help sometimes.”  
  
Erza's lower lip trembled. She looked as if she were about to say something, and then Sho staggered to his feet.  
  
“Erza, sis... what are you so worried about them for? You weren't so considerate when you tried to blow up our ship!”  
  
“...I tried to blow up your ship?” Erza said blankly.  
  
“Did you just find new friends to replace us with?” Sho demanded.  
  
“Sho, I swear I never tried to hurt any of you!”  
  
“Jellal said-”  
  
“Jellal is trying to resurrect Zeref. Is he really a reliable witness?” Lucy asked.  
  
“Lucy, don't,” Erza said, but Lucy couldn't have done anything if she had wanted to because, just then, Juvia screamed “Lucy!” and threw her arms around her.  
  
“Juvia! Oh my God, are you all right?”  
  
“Juvia is fine now she has found Lucy again!”  
  
And that was great, except that now Lucy was struggling to breathe.  
  
“Don't what?” said Gajeel. “These assholes again? I'm gonna punch them.” Juvia scowled, and Ryos moved hurriedly to put Lucy between him and Gajeel.  
  
“That! Don't do that,” Lucy said, wriggling out of Juvia's deathgrip.  
  
Sho turned back to his two friends, hands spread out in appeal. “She's going to attack Jellal if we don't stop her!”  
  
Erza just looked faintly sick.  
  
“Sho, calm down. Erza's good, but that guy's a monster,” Wally said. “Trouble is if she runs off.”  
  
“I'm not going to leave,” Erza said. She took a shuddering breath. “I have to fight Jellal.” She turned away from them, one hand going up to cover her face.  
  
“See!” Sho gestured sharply towards her. “I told you guys!”  
  
“What if he kills you?” Lucy said. “The sensible thing to do is leave!”  
  
“You don't understand,” Erza said. She turned back. There were tears running from her left eye. Gray and Gajeel both leapt back like they'd been stung.  
  
“...Erza, what's going on? What's the deal with this Jellal guy?” Lucy said.Gajeel mumbled something about not wanting to know about the Titania's breakups and stomped off down the hallway. “Simon told us you all used to be slaves here, and about the revolt you led-” Seriously, Erza had spearheaded a slave rebellion when she was just a kid and now she was too scared for one fight? “-but he said he didn't know everything.”  
  
“You talked to Simon?” Erza and Wally said, at the same time.  
  
“Yeah. He tried to convince us he was on our side, but we didn't fall for that.”  
  
Erza closed her eyes for a moment. “Simon wouldn't know what Jellal was like, after... after. I'll tell you. While I'm still here.” She glanced sideways at Sho, Wally and Millianna. Wally folded his arms and leant back against the wall, ready to listen.  
  
“I love stories!” Millianna said, and clapped her hands.  
  
“She'll lie,” Sho hissed. Wally indicated for him to shut his undandy trap, and Erza started, short and clinical.  
  
“I led the revolt to rescue Jellal as much as for freedom. He was our leader, unquestionably, and he had such a strong sense of justice - I looked up to him more than anyone else. But after that time, he changed. It was like he became a completely different person. If you could ever call someone truly evil-”

* * *

Grandpa Rob was dead. Simon might be. Jellal might be. There were guards in front of her, babbling. She didn't listen.  
  
“Get out of my way!” They didn't move fast enough. Erza cut them down. She ran down the long hallway to the punishment room and skidded to a stop. Jellal was hanging from a frame by his wrists. For a moment she was certain he was dead – he was so still – but then she heard him draw in a rattling breath.  
  
“Jellal!” She ran to him and slashed through the ropes. “It's okay, it's all over!” She caught him as he fell and lowered him to the ground. “We fought, just like you told us to!”  
  
Jellal didn't say anything. Was he going to be okay? They'd been brutal. There was barely an inch of his skin that wasn't bruised or bloody. They'd never meant for him to survive.  
  
Erza squashed that thought. He was alive. Anything else could be fixed. She took hold of one of his wrists, carefully, and cut the rope away. “Simon's badly hurt. Grandpa Rob... he died protecting me, and a lot of people sacrificed themselves.” Tears welled up in her eyes. Jellal said nothing. Blood dripped slowly from his mouth. “But we won! We're free!”  
  
Jellal didn't even lift his head. Could he hear her? Maybe he'd be better when they were back with their friends. “Come on! Wally and the others have taken the guards' ships. We're leaving this island!” She hauled him to his feet. Jellal moved. His fingertips brushed her arm, like he was making sure she was really there.  
  
“Erza.” She blinked – there was something strange in his voice – but she forgot all about that when he stumbled forward and wrapped both arms around her. He buried his face in her shoulder. Erza couldn't breathe. She placed her hands carefully on his back. He was bruised all over, she didn't want to hurt him any more. “We don't have to run any more,” Jellal said. His arms tightened around her. She really couldn't breathe. He pulled her onto her tiptoes.  
  
“Jellal?”  
  
“Our freedom is right here.”  
  
“What?” Erza gasped. Abruptly, he let go of her, turned and limped away. “Jellal, what are you talking about? Let's leave this island, together!”  
  
“Erza... freedom doesn't exist in this world.”  
  
What? How can... how can Jellal be saying that? They'd heard that from so many people, _give up_ , _you can't escape_ , _it's impossible_ and Jellal always grinned and said 'Don't listen to them. They're just too scared to try.'  
  
“I finally figured it out,” Jellal said. “Just getting off this island isn't what we need. It's not true freedom if it can still be taken away again.” He looked back at her over his shoulder, eyes wide, pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Real freedom only exists in Zeref's world.”  
  
She stared at him. This couldn't be happening.  
  
“I'm beginning to appreciate their desire to revive Zeref,” Jellal said. He was heading for the four guards Erza had left unconscious at the far end of the corridor. “But they never felt his presence. They were only a bunch of pathetic followers.” He set a foot down on one of the guards' heads. “Isn't that right?”  
  
The guard made a thin sound.  
  
“This tower is mine. I will complete and resurrect Zeref.”  
  
“What's wrong with you, Jellal?” Erza said. “I don't understand what you're saying...”  
  
Jellal laughed. He raised one hand, and twisted it. The guard screamed. His skin tore open. Blood sprayed out. It spattered Jellal's arms and chest, but his mad taut smile didn't flicker. Erza clapped both hands over her mouth. Jellal closed his fist, and the guard was hauled up off the ground.  
  
“Stop, please stop!” he begged. Jellal made another gesture, and the guard was flung into the wall. He burst. There was no other way to describe it, there was barely even a body left, just a mangled heap of bones and flesh and a scream still ringing in Erza's ears.  
  
“Magic?” she whispered.  
  
Jellal just laughed, and then he did the same thing to the next two.  
  
“Stop!” Erza said.  
  
“Stop?” He looked back at her. The other guard scrambled to his feet and tried to stagger away. “Don't you hate these guys, Erza?”  
  
“Of course I do! But this is-”  
  
“That's not good enough. You'll never be able to feel Zeref's presence like that.” He killed the last guard. There was a scream, cut short. Erza shut her eyes tight and pressed her hands over her ears. Jellal's wild laughter reverberated off the walls.  
  
“Jellal, get a hold of yourself! It's just because you've been up here for days, you're not really-”  
  
“I'm fine,” he said. “Everything's fine.” He turned to face her. “Erza, let's complete the R-System – no, the Tower of Heaven – together!”  
  
“Stop it! You're not making any sense!” Erza shouted. “We're leaving this island!”  
  
Jellal's expression changed. There was a long moment of silence. Then he blasted her off her feet. Erza was flung out of the tower, through a temporary barricade of piled-up debris. She tumbled down a heap of rubble and landed in a battered heap at the bottom.  
  
When her eyes opened again, Jellal was standing at the top of the heap, looking down at her. “Fine,” he said. “If you want to leave so badly, go by yourself.”  
  
“By myself?” Erza struggled to get up. Everything hurt. Her head was spinning.  
  
“The others all belong to me. I'll need them to help me finish the tower.” He started down the rubble heap towards her. Should she run? Fear struggled against disbelief. How could she possibly be in danger from Jellal?  
  
“You don't have to worry. I won't be like those guys. I'll give everyone food and clothes and let them rest sometimes. Labouring under fear and starvation is just so inefficient.”  
  
“What are you talking about?” Erza forced herself to her knees. “They're all already on the ship! They're waiting for us! They'll never come back to work here!”  
  
“Those guys never told them what we were working for,” Jellal said brightly. “I'm sure they'll be much more tractable once I've explained.”  
  
“Jellal, please!” Erza said. “Think about what you're saying!”  
  
He gestured. Something closed around her throat. She clawed at it. Hands, reaching out of the earth. How was he doing that? When did he learn how to do that? Her nails scraped uselessly over the surface. She saw spots. It felt like her head was going to come off.  
  
“I don't need you any more,” Jellal said. Icy fear settled into Erza's stomach. She whimpered. Jellal thought about it. “But I'm not going to kill you. Because I am grateful that you got rid of those guys for me. You can go and pursue your pale imitation of freedom, if you like.”  
  
Tears spilled down Erza's face. “Jellal-”  
  
He lowered his voice and stepped closer to her. “You know you mustn't tell anyone about this, don't you, Erza? If the Council finds out, I'll have to kill everyone in this tower. If you ever come back here, I'll have to kill everyone in this tower. And I'll start with Sho and the others.” He was smiling. Tears dripped off Erza's face. It couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real, it couldn't be Jellal saying these things.  
  
“Jellal,” she whispered.  
  
“There's your freedom, Erza! Go and live knowing that your friends' lives are resting on your shoulders!” His crazed laughter rang in her ears.  
  
It was so strange. She remembered every word Jellal had said as if they were carved into her heart, but she couldn't remember how she left the island. She didn't even really remember what Jellal did after that. She thought he just walked away and left her lying on the ground.

* * *

Erza swiped away tears and turned back to her friends. Gray looked aghast. Of course he did. And she hadn't even said that Jellal hugged her, or that he asked her to join him. Not in front of all the ex-Phantom mages.  
  
“Bullshit!” Sho was shaking. “Are you trying to pry sympathy out of your friends? Weren't you the one who bombed the ship we were on and then ran off by yourself? If Jellal hadn't discovered your betrayal we would all have been blown to pieces! Jellal told us you went crazy frim your new power and gave up everything to do with us!”  
  
“Jellal told you that?” Gray and Lucy said simultaneously.  
  
Sho's eyes were wild. “You don't understand anything! You don't know anything about us! Jellal saved us all! We spent the last eight years building this tower for him! You're saying it was all a lie? If Erza's telling the truth, then everything Jellal said was a lie?”  
  
Behind him, Wally and Millianna were having a urgent whispered conversation. It ended with Millianna shrugging. Wally muttered something else. Millianna shrugged again, more expansively.  
  
“Sho, I'm sorry,” Erza said.  
  
“Erza's right, Sho,” Simon said. Lucy whipped around. How did this guy keep showing up out of nowhere? He was bigger than Gajeel! “You, Wally and Millianna were all tricked. I pretended to trust him, and waited for the right time.” He looked at Erza. “I believed Erza from the beginning. It's been that way for eight years.”  
  
A faint, tentative smile tugged at the corners of Erza's mouth. “Simon?”  
  
“It's so good to see you again,” he said. Erza went up on tiptoes, and Simon stooped to embrace her. Lucy winced, and raised both hands.  
  
“Don't-”  
  
Nothing happened. He didn't drive a knife into her back.  
  
“Wait. He's actually on her side?” Lucy said. “How can you just trust him like that?”  
  
Nobody heard her, though, because that was when Sho crumpled to the floor and wailed “How can you just trust her like that?” He pounded his fist against the stones. “Damn it! Who's telling the truth? Who am I supposed to believe?” Millianna tried to console him, but he couldn't hear her over his own hysterical sobs. Wally looked deeply embarrassed to be standing next to Sho.  
  
Erza knelt down in front of him. “Sho-” He bolted from under her outstretched hand. He catapulted to his feet and was gone. “Sho!” Erza shouted, and ran after him.  
  
“Oh, oops,” Millianna said.  
  
“Simon, how can you be sure Erza's telling the truth?” Wally asked.  
  
Simon looked down at him wearily and said “Do you think Erza would ever have left Jellal of her own free will?”  
  
Wally and Millianna looked at each other, startled.  
  
Oh. Huh. That... would not help with fighting him.  
  
“We're going to go find Sho as well,” Millianna said, and they both booked it.  
  
“Do we really want Erza running off by herself with those guys?” Lucy asked.  
  
“I don't think they'll try to attack her,” Simon said. Considering Simon's track record so far, that meant the other three were attacking Erza right at that second.  
  
“Gray?”  
  
“Erza can handle it,” Gray said. “And she probably wants to talk to them by herself. Don't interfere.”  
  
Lucy didn't like that. Erza's ex-friends might have had a change of heart, and Erza could deal with them anyway, but what about all the other trouble they could run in to? “How many more crazy people does Jellal have skulking around the tower, anyway?”  
  
“What crazy people?” Gray said.  
  
Simon looked horrified. “Have you not defeated all of Trinity Raven?”  
  
“Who are Trinity Raven?” said Gray and Lucy.  
  
“They are a team of assassins from the guild Death's Head Caucus,” Juvia said. “Juvia met one who played the guitar, but she defeated him despite Gajeel's best efforts to get in her way.”  
  
“Oi!”  
  
“And the owl guy I beat without any help from Ryos was probably one,” Lucy said. They looked at Gray.  
  
“I didn't see anyone except Erza's old friends,” he said.  
  
“So we beat two of them. How many are there?” Lucy asked.  
  
“They're called Trinity Raven,” Simon said.  
  
Oh, look who was smart now all of a sudden. “Then we need to go find Erza!” Lucy said. “Gajeel, can you smell which way they went?”  
  
“So now you want my help?” Gajeel said. “The Titania can look after herself just fine. What are you freaking out for?”  
  
“They're extremely dangerous!” Simon said.  
  
“Then how come Ashley beat one?” Gajeel countered.  
  
“Gajeel has not been useful before, so Juvia supposes he does not see why he should start now.”  
  
Gajeel responded to that maturely, by putting an iron bar through Juvia's head.  
  
“Stop that!” Lucy said.  
  
The response was an instant, simultaneous “He/She started it!”  
  
“I don't care who started it! I'll finish- ugh, no, I'm not your babysitter,” Lucy said. “Fine, we'll do this the hard way. Come on,” she said to Ryos, Gray and Simon. “Let's go find Erza, fast!”

* * *

Sho ran blindly, swearing under his breath. “Jellal – shit! You bastard! How dare you deceive us like this?” Hearing a noise, he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and looked up.  
  
A woman in a kimono was descending the steps. One hand trailed along the railing. The other held a sheathed katana. Cherry blossom drifted around her. She smiled. “How fortunate, that I should have come upon you. I am called Ikaruga. Greetings.”  
  
“Move it,” Sho said. He wanted to confront Jellal. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”  
  
“Oh, my.” Ikaruga covered her mouth demurely with her sleeve. “What a rude young man. I am looking for a woman named Erza.”  
  
Sho reached into his coat. “Erza doesn't have to waste time on trash like you!” He flung a volley of exploding cards at her. Ikaruga drew her sword a few inches out of the scabbard. All the cards fell apart. Sho stumbled back, horrorstruck. “No way!”  
  
“There is nothing under the sun that my blade cannot reach,” Ikaruga said, and then blinding pain seared across Sho's chest. He fell backwards onto the floor.  
  
“Wha – when did you-” Blood spattered from his mouth. He doubled over, one hand pressed against his chest.  
  
“Are you dear to her?” Ikaruga asked. “On a summer night / I heard an old friend calling / me to his graveside.” She pursed her lips.  
  
“What the hell do you want?” Sho wheezed.  
  
“Were you not listening? I am looking for a woman named Erza,” Ikaruga said. “Will you help me find her?” Her sword flickered. Sho threw his arms up over his head, and long gashes opened up across his hands and arms. He howled.  
  
“That won't do. Louder, please.” Ikaruga flicked her blade again, slicing dozens of small lacerations into Sho's back. Sho shrieked and tried to scrabble away. “Stop it! Stop it, you bitch!”  
  
Ikaruga's eyes narrowed. “How rude. Using such language in front of a lady.” She extended her sword until the blade hung over Sho's neck like a guillotine. He yelped and hunkered down. “How unfortunate, that you were never taught manners-”  
  
“Stop!” Erza said. “Let Sho go. You don't have any business with him.”  
  
Ikaruga lifted her head, slowly. “Erza. How lovely of you to join us.”  
  
Sho looked up, eyes alight with hope. “Sis!” He scrambled towards her.  
  
Ikaruga held out her sword to bar his way. “I'm curious. What exactly do you intend to do if I refuse to release your friend?” She looked down at Sho. “Your sister and I crossed blades not so long ago, and she fled from me. None of her armours could withstand my blade.”  
  
Sho's face fell. “What?”  
  
Ikaruga smiled. “Are you prepared to surrender, Erza? Or would you rather continue your futile efforts?”  
  
In answer, Erza shed the Black Wing armour. It melted away, replaced by flame-patterned pants and bandages wrapped tightly around her chest. The hilts of twin katanas settled into her hands. Ikaruga's lip curled. She lifted her own sword, and then stopped. A faint frown creased her forehead.  
  
“...what is that? I don't sense any magic from that costume whatsoever.”  
  
“It's just fabric. That's all,” Erza said.  
  
Ikaruga smiled. A muscle in her cheek twitched. “And after I went to so much effort to show you my skill. What happened since we last met to make you so arrogant?”  
  
“Sis, what's wrong with you?” Sho wailed. “Don't you have tons of strong armours? You're stronger than this, aren't you?”  
  
“No. I'm not strong,” Erza said. She remembered a time, once, when Gray found her sitting by the lakeshore and asked her 'If you like to be alone, then why are you crying?' She'd stood up. “I wasn't crying.” And she'd walked away. After seeing friends die right in front of her, after failing to save the people she cared about... she was always crying, and always trying to pretend that she was strong. She locked her heart up in armour, and cried. “It's because I'm weak that I always wore armour, and couldn't take it off.”  
  
“Even if my opponent is naked, I will not hesitate to slice her,” Ikaruga said.  
  
“I believed that my armour would keep me safe,” Erza said, “but that wasn't right. I was only shutting myself off to other people. But my friends taught me otherwise; that it's much better to be close to other people, and share in their strength.” She lifted her twin katanas. “I no longer have any doubts!”  
  
“This is the end!” Ikaruga shouted. She lunged, sword held in both hands.  
  
“Sis!” Sho yelled. Erza bared her teeth. One strike - They leapt past each other. Steel flashed. Wind whipped around them, stirring dust and cherry blossom. Erza didn't even know which of them had won.  
  
She felt the warmth running down her arm before the sudden flare of pain. A slash below her shoulder had started to bleed. Ikaruga's sword was so sharp, she hadn't even felt the cut. Ikaruga smiled.  
  
“And thus, you lose.” Then her eyes widened. Blood spurted from a deep slash across her chest. Her sword fell from her hand. “Im-impossible-” She crumpled to the floor. Erza threw her head back and hissed between her teeth until the pain died down.  
  
“All right! Sis, that was incredible!” Sho croaked.  
  
“That was...impressive,” Ikaruga whispered. “I, who had never been defeated since joining our guild... So peerlessly swift / only the cherryblossom / marked the blade's passing-” Her eyes closed.  
  
Erza drew in a deep breath. “Sho, are you all right?”  
  
“Yeah... thanks to you, sis...” Sho burst into tears. “I'm sorry! You saved me, _again_ , after we all attacked you-”  
  
Erza grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. “I'm not angry about that. I'm just glad we all met again. I don't care how.”  
  
“Jellal really lied to us,” Sho said, his voice cracking. Erza pressed his face into her chest.  
  
“I know it's hard to accept, now, after so long, but I just want to say... for eight years, I never stopped thinking about you guys. Even though I was too weak to do anything for you...”  
  
Sho made an incoherent noise into Erza's bandages.  
  
“Sho?”  
  
Erza looked up. Millianna and Wally had snuck up quietly, Millianna lurking behind Wally.  
  
“Sho, dandy men aren't that clingy,” Wally said.  
  
Erza reached out. Millianna darted in for a hug, and after a second Wally joined them. Erza shut her eyes and rested her head on Wally's shoulder.  
  
(That was actually really uncomfortable.)

* * *

Jellal let out a delighted laugh and clapped his hands. “That was amazing, Erza!” He knocked over the doll in the kimono with the armoured knight token, and smiled. Of course he was glad Erza had won. It would have been a disappointment if she hadn't.  
  
Considering the situation, however, she still had too many players on her side. He hadn't expected the ice mage and the ex-Phantom members to be so competent, and their apparent pet being a Dragon Slayer had come as a total surprise.  
  
He turned away from the gameboard. Ultear had said that he should stay out of it. Ultear had said that he shouldn't put himself at risk before Siegrain returned. Ultear had said, “Jellal, I will nail you to your throne.”  
  
What Ultear didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

* * *

“Ugh! This place is a maze!” Lucy said. “Why couldn't you build a tower that just went up and down normally with all the stairs in the same place?” They were standing in another huge hall with about a dozen corridors opening off it. Or maybe it wasn't another one; Lucy wouldn't have been surprised if they were just ending up in the same room over and over.  
  
“In some places, we... quite drastically misread the building plans,” Simon admitted. “But it was fairly labyrinthine from the beginning.” He was looking around as if he thought he might spot a flash of red hair. “I can't communicate with the others. My telepathy is being blocked.”  
  
“Well, naturally. Telepathy would be useful,” Lucy said. She looked at her friends. Juvia and Gajeel were standing on opposite sides of the hall. Gajeel was glaring daggers into Juvia's head. Juvia was coldly ignoring him.  
  
Would mind-reading powers help her to solve that? She would settle for the ability to psychically bang their heads together.  
  
“I don't know what you guys argued about, but can you drop it?”  
  
“Juvia and Gajeel did not argue,” Juvia said. “Gajeel cannot string together enough coherent sentences to participate in an argument.”  
  
“Hey! Lockser! Fuck you!” Gajeel said. “I want a rematch.”  
  
“You fought?” Lucy gave them the look her father used on servants he was about to fire. “While me and Ryos – actually, just me, Ryos didn't help at all – were fighting that freaky owl, you two decided to have a sparring match?”  
  
Juvia drooped like a sad flower. “Juvia did not mean to!”  
  
Lucy turned away and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was bone-tired, and she really didn't want to have to deal with whatever that was just then. Simon still seemed to be trying to reach Sho and the others. She was starting to think he might genuinely be on Erza's side.  
  
“I was thinking about apologising to you for thinking you were evil,” she said to him, “but then I decided against it, because your plan was awful and I'm not sorry at all.”  
  
“Plans are evidently not my strong suit,” Simon agreed. Lucy looked past him. A flash of blue had caught her attention.  
  
Councillor Siegrain was sauntering towards them down the corridor. His hands were in his pockets, and he was smiling.  
  
Lucy took a step back. Simon turned. “Jellal,” he said, startled.  
  
Lucy suddenly realised exactly how wrong she had been about everything.  
  
“Hi, Simon!” Jellal said, and then he blew Simon's head off his shoulders. There wasn't anything left, there wasn't anything left of his head except a red spatter and a piece of twisted metal embedded in the wall. Simon's body thudded to the ground. Lucy gasped in a strangled breath, and screamed.  
  
“Lucy, get back!” Juvia shrieked. “Water Slicer!”  
  
Lucy scrabbled backwards, hyperventilating. The water arcs flashed over her head. Jellal ran two steps up the wall and catapulted himself over the water arcs. Golden light flared around him like a halo and then suddenly he was inside Juvia's reach. Juvia wasn't accustomed to defending herself. She didn't move fast enough. Jellal smacked a spell on her chest. It spread out in a tangle of glowing purple lines, and Juvia gasped. She fell backwards.  
  
“Lockser!” Gajeel shouted, and lashed out. Jellal slid out of the way, ran up Gajeel's iron bar and somersaulted over his head. Gajeel yanked his arm back and spun.  
  
“Heaven Palm!” Jellal blasted Gajeel through two walls and into empty space outside the tower. He fell with a distant roar of shock. Ryos had been trailing behind Gajeel, as usual. He recoiled against the far wall.  
  
Gray smacked a fist into his other palm. “Ice-Make: Lance!” Frozen spears erupted from his hands. Jellal blurred, Ryos was pulled off his feet, and then there was a cry and Ryos was falling to the ground with an ice spear in his back. It took Lucy a second to realise that he'd used Ryos as a shield. Gray cried out in shock, abruptly cut off when Jellal blurred again and drove his boot into Gray's throat. Gray fell backwards.  
  
That only left Lucy, still huddled on the ground, gasping for breath. That only left one option. She clutched at her keys.  
  
“Gate of the Waterbearer, open,” she whispered, and shut her eyes tight. “Aquarius!”  
  
“Why in hell haven't you summoned me in so long?” Aquarius roared, as she materialised, and swung her urn up above her head. “Hraaaagh!” The wave came crashing down. It swept Jellal off his feet, spun him over and over and slammed him into the wall.  
  
“Don't call me again until you're ready to apologise!” Aquarius barked, and disappeared. Lucy lay flat on the floor, water plastering her hair to her head, too exhausted to get up. She could barely twitch her fingers.  
  
Jellal climbed slowly to his feet, one hand pressed against his ribs, and looked at them like he was deciding who to kill first.  
  
“Juvia,” Lucy said faintly. “Juvia, are you-”  
  
“Some sort of self-destruct spell. Juvia cannot control her water,” Juvia rasped. Her fingers were melting, her hair ran in trickles down her chest, and her feet were dissolving into a puddle. The purple sigil on her chest glowed. “Lucy must get out of here!”  
  
Lucy didn't think she had the strength to move. Ryos was whimpering on the floor, with an ice spear still buried in his back. Gray propped himself up on one elbow, wheezing, one hand at his throat.  
  
“Jellal,” Erza said. Jellal's head snapped around. Erza fixed him with a stare that should have left him a smoking crater. Jellal grinned, and he kept on grinning as Erza's gaze slid past him to Simon's body.  
  
For a moment, it looked as if she didn't understand what she was seeing, and then her eyes widened and her lips parted. Sho, Wally and Millianna were lurking behind her, down one of the corridors. “Stay back!” Erza screamed at them. “Don't come any closer!”  
  
Shostarted forward to see what Erza wanted him to stay away from. Wally yanked him back by the scruff of his neck.  
  
“He just walked up to us,” Lucy gasped, “and he, he-”  
  
“Bad news, Erza,” Jellal said, glanced down at Simon's body and corrected it. “ _Other_ bad news. Some idiot told the Council about this place, and they've targeted the tower with Etherion.” His grin widened. “It'll strike in eleven minutes.”  
  
Etherion?  
  
That couldn't be true. That was impossible. But... didn't the council know what Jellal was planning to do here? Wasn't reviving Zeref the most dangerous thing they could do? Of course they would have chosen to fire Etherion!  
  
It was Lucy's fault. It was all because she had sent that message to the Council.  
  
“All of you, get out of here,” Erza said. “This is my fight. Gray, get them out of here!”  
  
Lucy knew immediately what she was planning. Gray staggered to his feet. He looked for a moment like he wanted to stay, but then he looked down at Ryos and cursed. He tossed Ryos over his shoulder and grabbed Juvia, freezing her near-solid as he did. “Get up, Lucy!” Where was he taking Juvia? Lucy hauled herself up to her feet. Jellal stepped back and gestured magnanimously that they could go. He kept his eyes on Erza. It was like they didn't even exist, now that she was there.  
  
Lucy wasn't even sure how they got across the hall, but as soon as they reached Erza's old friends, Wally grabbed Ryos from Gray, and Millianna slung Lucy's arm over her shoulder.  
  
“What's going on?” Sho demanded.  
  
“The Council's firing Etherion at this tower,” Gray rasped. “Ten minutes. We need to get out of here!”  
  
“Etherion!” Wally repeated, aghast. “What about-?”  
  
“Just move!”  
  
They rushed down through the tower, out onto a beach where a rowboat rocked gently in the incoming tide. Wally dropped Ryos into it, and Gray tossed Juvia after him.  
  
“Hey!” Lucy's voice scraped in her throat. She heard a distant yell and tensed reflexively, but it was only Gajeel stomping towards them.  
  
“What's going on?”  
  
“The Council's about to attack the tower with Etherion,” Gray said. “We need to get out of here.”  
  
“...shit, okay,” Gajeel said. He picked Lucy up and tossed her into the boat. She landed on Juvia.  
  
“Ow!”  
  
Gray and Gajeel both ignored her and made to shove the boat off.  
  
“What are you doing?” Sho said. “We need to wait for Simon!”  
  
“Simon's dead,” Lucy said. “Jellal killed him.”  
  
“What? Shit!”  
  
“Simon's dead?” Millianna repeated. “Simon can't be dead! We talked to him ten minutes ago!” She turned to Wally. “Simon can't be dead!”  
  
“Millianna, get in the boat,” said Wally.  
  
“Jellal couldn't have killed Simon!” Sho said. “He's our friend! He's Jellal's friend!”  
  
He grabbed Millianna and Wally, who were closest, and chucked them into the boat. “Where's the Titania?”  
  
“She stayed behind,” Lucy said.  
  
“The suicide play, huh?”  
  
“No way! Erza knows what she's doing,” Gray snapped. “She'll be fine. She'll use her Black Wing armour and fly away, or something.” Who was he trying to convince?  
  
“Yeah, yeah, Fullbuster. She can kick that guy's ass all she wants, I'm not hanging around to watch it!” Gajeel kicked the boat off and leapt in. The boat rocked. “Iron Dragon's Metal Drill!” His arm transformed into a metal spiral. He plunged it into the water and it began to rotate, churning the shallow water. Gray scrambled in just in time.  
  
The boat sped away from the island, throwing up a plume of spray in its wake. Lucy stared up at the night sky and waited for Etherion to split it open.  
  
Erza was going to stop Jellal from escaping long enough for Etherion to kill them both. She was going to die. It was all Lucy's fault. She'd gone to the tower to save Erza, but she'd been too weak.  
  
“Hey!” Millianna sat bolt upright. “Where's Sho?”


	22. Erza Vs. Jellal

“Why?” Erza said. She was shaking with fury. “You killed Simon! Why?”  
  
“I'm sorry, Erza,” Jellal said. “I had no idea Simon was actually _using_ his brain.”  
  
“He was my friend!” Erza shouted. “He was your friend!” Her voice rose to a howl of grief, and she charged him. She swung her katana at his head, a two-handed blow that should have cut open his skull. Jellal leapt back. The blade whistled past his face.  
  
“My friend? Hardly-” Dark energy gathered around his right hand and erupted into a horde of dark phantoms. They all lunged at Erza. “And since the tower is complete, I had no more use for him!”  
  
Erza weaved and rolled between the ghosts. When she slashed through them thick black ichor spattered her blade. “This tower is going to be destroyed in a few minutes! All the time you spent on it was already wasted!” Every time she attacked he slid away from her blade and retreated. She chased after him.  
  
“Oh, the Etherion?” Jellal laughed breathlessly and thrust out his right hand, releasing arrows of golden light. Erza raced up the wall and dived away as the arrows smashed into the floor and plaster under her. She rolled and bounded back to her feet.  
  
“So you were bluffing?”  
  
“No, Erza. Etherion will fall!” She was off balance and breathless. He blasted her again. The impact flung her through a wall into empty space. It was another hall; she twisted to land on her feet, and as chunks of debris came raining down around her she slashed them apart with her sword. Jellal looked down at her through the hole in the wall.  
  
“Good!” Erza yelled up at him. “If they're really firing Etherion, then all I have to do is keep you here until then, and this will all be over!”  
  
“No. You are going to die as Zeref's sacrifice,” he said. “It's your destiny!” His grin widened. Again, that dark energy boiled up around one hand and he sent a dozen ghosts at her. Erza sliced them all into little pieces. The thick black ichor splashed on her skin and evaporated in a hissing cloud. Why wasn't he trying harder? She would _make_ him try harder! “You're doing well, Erza! This is fun!” Jellal stepped back from the hole in the wall. “Are you staying down there? I thought you were trying to stop me!”  
  
“Enough!” Erza roared. There were the stairs back up to his level; she leapt onto the railing and raced up it. At the top she threw herself off and slashed down at him. He dived backwards, landing on both hands, and tumbled sideways with a startled cry. Erza pressed the attack. Jellal rolled sideways as her blade bit into the floor next to his ribs, and flung out his right hand. A ball of dark energy coalesced in his palm.  
  
“Ghost Cage!” He blasted the ball at Erza, releasing more phantoms. Erza lifted her katana, ready to cut them down, but the ghosts coiled around her calves and arms and throat. They dragged her to the ground. Erza let out a howl of fury and swung her sword at them anyway. Sticky threads clung to the blade as she hacked herself free. Jellal was scrambling back to his feet. No! Erza tackled him to the ground.  
  
Jellal hit the floor on his back. Erza pinned him down with her knee over his left shoulder and grabbed his right wrist. She pressed her blade to his throat. Jellal stared up at her, breathing heavily, teeth bared.  
  
“What are you doing here?” Erza shouted. “You haven't completed the R-System at all!” A faint shudder ran through Jellal's body. “Are you surprised? Did you think I was going to do nothing for eight years? I did my own research into the Revive System! You may have made them build the tower for you perfectly, according to the blueprints, but you're still missing something!”  
  
“I told you. The sacrifice will be you,” Jellal said. His eyes were wide and his smile was strained. He yanked fretfully at her grip on his wrist, but couldn't get free.  
  
“No, Jellal!” She tightened her grip until he hissed in pain. “It's something more basic than that! It's the magic itself! For a spell like this, you would need two billion seven hundred million Edeas of sheer magical energy! That's the kind of magic you couldn't scrape together if you gathered every mage on the continent! It's completely impossible that you could have collected that much magic and stored it here!” He said nothing. “You're smashing up your own tower! Why are you doing that if you need it?”  
  
“It's only a pillar or two. Nothing but decorations.”  
  
“Simon and the others spent eight years on those decorations!”  
  
Jellal rolled his eyes. “Don't play word games with me, Erza. You know none of it matters except the R-System.”  
  
“The R-System isn't complete!” She let go of his wrist and hit him. His head snapped to one side. “And you know the Council is targeting you with Etherion and you're not even trying to run! Why not?”  
  
Jellal smiled. A cut on his lip started to bleed. “Two minutes.”  
  
“It's over, Jellal! It was over a long time ago! You killed Simon for this and you know it can't work!” She pressed the blade against his throat until blood welled up at the edge of the blade. “We're both going to die here, Jellal! I'm going to keep you right here until Etherion falls!”  
  
Jellal exhaled a long shuddering breath. “Y-yeah. That doesn't sound too bad.” He closed his eyes and let his head fall back.  
  
“You killed Simon,” Erza said. Saying it out loud didn't make it seem any more real. It couldn't be that the lifeless thing on the floor had been Simon, it couldn't be that another person she cared about had died almost in front of her. “Why? He was your friend!”  
  
“Erza, are you that oblivious? He was _your_ friend,” Jellal said sourly. He opened his eyes. “It didn't matter.”  
  
She hit him again. “How can you say that?!”  
  
“Nothing mattered except completing the tower,” Jellal said. “I saw Zeref's ghost, Erza. Do you believe me? He got into my head. I've been just a doll, working for his purposes, for years.” He spoke without any emotion. He could have been talking about someone else.  
  
“You killed him, Jellal!” Erza said. “It was you. Not Zeref, not anybody. You!” She looked down at him for a second, and said again, helplessly, “He was your _friend_.” There wasn't a flicker of remorse.  
  
“I don't remember what that means,” Jellal said. “Does it matter? Even if they were my friends, they couldn't help me, any more than I could help myself.”

* * *

“Final sequence, firing phase complete!”  
  
“Expand the Satellite Square!”  
  
The hall was thrumming with power. It crackled along Org's staff and the thin airy pillars of the translocation array, and Etherion was still sucking in magic from the atmosphere. Leaving it any longer would risk destroying the hall itself.  
  
“So we pray to the holy light,” Org said.  
  
“So we pray,” Belno and Leiji echoed, and then other councillors followed in a ragged chorus. Yajima, the sole dissenter, stood back and watched Sieg.  
  
“So we pray,” Sieg said calmly. Yajima glared at him.

* * *  
  
In the boat, Ryos was slumped across the bench next to Gajeel. They had pulled the spear out – normally that would be a really bad idea, but normally weapons weren't made of solid ice – and Lucy was pressing Wally's scarf against the wound. Wally had objected, but not for very long.  
  
“Your Ice Lances aren't designed to kill people, are they?” Lucy asked Gray. Gray had been mostly watching with concern, but then he just looked at her weirdly.  
  
“None of my spells are designed to kill _anything_.”  
  
Okay, good.  
  
Juvia was still dissolving, but more slowly. Icy mush dripped from the end of her nose. Her features were slowly melting away. Lucy was praying the spell would wear off. If Jellal was killed... Erza would die too, so it was wrong to hope for Etherion to fall soon, but Juvia...  
  
“Hey, up there!” Gajeel said, and pointed. A glow had appeared in the sky above the tower, and rays of light speared into the water around it. The glow blossomed into the Satellite Square.  
  
Lucy knew that the Satellite Square was several miles wide and practically in space, but it looked as if it was floating just above the tower. The tower's twin spires seemed to be reaching out to it.  
  
“Myaah!” Millianna recoiled and fell off her bench. “Erza, Sho!” She covered her mouth with her hands.  
  
“Whoa, whoa,” Wally stuttered, “are they seriously gonna fire the Etherion?”  
  
“Erza, you've got to get out of there!” Gray hissed. Maybe nobody except Lucy heard him.

* * *

“Kill me,” Jellal said. “Isn't that what you came here for?”  
  
“I don't need to,” Erza said. “This rumbling – the Satellite Square must already be taking shape.” She lifted the sword and set the point against the floor. “It's over. For both of us.”  
  
Jellal smiled a little. “You screw-up,” he said, not without affection. The electric lights flickered and died, but the light through the windows was getting so bright it didn't matter. The foundations of the tower were shaking. The air was so thick with magical energy it felt like a solid weight pressing down on her shoulders. Was it strange, that she felt so calm? There was nothing else to do, and she'd always known that she would die in this tower one day.  
  
She hoped all her friends had escaped. Gray, Sho, Wally, Millianna, Lucy Ashley and her team. She hoped Master Makarov would understand. She would miss all of them so much.  
  
Jellal was lying still, looking up. In the harsh light his eyes seemed to glow from within. He looked almost like he had when they were children.  
  
“Jellal-” She reached out her hand to touch him, and he turned his face towards her. In the stark white light, she saw him clearly. His face and arms were dotted with flecks of Simon's blood. She recoiled. Etherion came crashing down.

* * *

The tower was swallowed up by the beam of light. It fell apart. For a moment, Lucy saw the pieces falling, standing out blackly against the glare that turned the night sky to noon, and then the impact threw up a massive wave from the base of the tower. Lucy shrieked. Gajeel grabbed Ryos the moment before the wave crashed over them. It flipped the boat over as if it weighed nothing and flung them all into the churning sea.  
  
Lucy struggled to the surface, spitting and flailing. Somebody grabbed onto her. She clutched at them, and for her keys. Luckily, they were still on her belt.  
  
“It's me!” Gray said. “Don't hang on so tight, and don't yell!”  
  
“Juvia! Gajeel!” Lucy yelled, and a wave splashed seawaster into her mouth. She gagged and spat.  
  
“I told you not to yell,” Gray said, and then he squawked as the water suddenly twisted around them. They were dragged back under the surface, but before Lucy could do much more than panic she felt something something solid under her hands and heard Gajeel swearing. They bobbed back up to the surface. All of them – her and Gray, Gajeel and Ryos, Wally and Millianna – had been swept into a bubble. A column of water rose up from the floor and shaped itself into Juvia. She neatened her hair and adjusted her hat.  
  
“The self-destruct spell cast on Juvia has expired.”  
  
“Juvia!” Lucy scrambled up to her knees and threw her arms around Juvia's waist.  
  
“Wait,” Gray said. “Does that mean-”  
  
They all looked at the tower. It was completely hidden in a cloud of steam or smoke.

* * *

“Etherion deployment was a success! A direct hit! Repeat, a direct hit!”  
  
“Yes, but has the tower been destroyed? We need confirmation!”  
  
“Eternano fusion density still steadily increasing,” another frog reported. “Unusual weather conditions may result."  
  
“Who cares about the weather?” said another one.  
  
Org pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just how many people were inside that tower?”  
  
“We've prevented the resurrection of Zeref,” Michello said. “If a few people were sacrificed, it was for the greater good.”  
  
“As much as we try to justify it,” Org said, “it won't help the families of those who perished.”

* * *

Erza opened her eyes. The hall was gone. Everything had been torn away to reveal a cave of crystal that glowed with a dim blue light. Smoke roiled around them. “We're alive?” she said blankly. “Jellal-”  
  
He blasted her off him.

* * *

The Etherion techs were going wild.  
  
“Something seems to be counteracting the Eternano in the epicentre of the blast-”  
  
“Fusion density has gone into rapid decline!”  
  
“We're getting readings of a completely separate energy! The power readings are over- our equipment can't keep up!”  
  
“What the hell is it?”  
  
“Restoring visuals now!” yelled the frog at the observation station.

* * *

Erza hit the floor and scrambled up.  
  
“Finally!” Jellal shouted, hands raised in exultation. Erza couldn't believe what she was seeing.  
  
“Jellal! You-”  
  
He laughed. “Surprised, Erza?” He spread his hands. “This is the true form of the Tower of Heaven – a gigantic pillar of lacrima. And with their Etherion, the Council have helped me gather two billion, seven hundred million Edeas of magical energy!”  
  
Erza gasped.

* * *

“The target is still standing!” One of the technicians clapped his hands over his mouth. On the viewscreens, the smoke that wreathed the tower was blowing apart. “What is that?”  
  
“It's a giant lacrima crystal!”  
  
“And it's-” Another technician was tapping at her controls. “It's absorbed Etherion's energy?”  
  
“What?” seven councillors roared together.  
  
Yajima turned on Sieg. “What's the meaning of-” Sieg vanished. Yajima gasped. “He's gone? Sieg's gone?”

* * *

“You tricked me!” Erza accused. Jellal just grinned.  
  
“Oh, you were so cute, Erza.” His voice came from behind her. She wheeled around. Siegrain was walking towards them, all pristine white robes and sheer. “Jellal and I couldn't provide the necessary power by ourselves. We had no choice, really.”  
  
“Siegrain!” Erza shouted. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“Do you remember when we first met, Erza?” Sieg said. “Makarov was presenting another written apology to the Council, and you came with him. You attacked me immediately – of course, I look identical to Jellal, so that was a reasonable response.” He stopped in front of her. “I managed to calm you down by saying we were twins, but you never lost your hostility towards me, did you?”  
  
“Why should I have?” Erza demanded. “You're his older brother, but you've done nothing to try to stop him! Worse, you've been watching me for him!”  
  
Sieg made a gesture at Jellal as if to say 'you see?' “Back then, I probably should have said something like 'I will find Jellal and kill him immediately.'”  
  
“It's not easy coming up with an excuse on the spot. Particularly not in front of Erza,” Jellal consoled him. Sieg accepted it with a shrug.  
  
“But really, that wasn't my worst miscalculation. That was meeting you at all, after managing to get onto the council.” He went to stand next to Jellal, and turned so that they were standing shoulder to shoulder.  
  
“I should have known,” Erza spat. “You're in on this together?”  
  
“'In on this together'?” Sieg repeated.  
  
“You're still not catching on, Erza,” Jellal said. “The two of us are one and the same.”  
  
“We always were,” Sieg said. He stepped sideways, into Jellal. His outline dissolved into light and settled into Jellal's skin.  
  
“N-no,” Erza stammered. “A thought projection?”  
  
“Yes. Sieg is me, plain and simple.”  
  
It had been _Jellal_ , all this time, watching her out of Sieg's eyes? Erza remembered Sieg twisting her hair between his fingers. Her skin crawled. Bile rose in her throat.  
  
“Then – you just fired Etherion at yourself? You wormed your way into the Council for that?”  
  
“I hope you enjoyed your fleeting freedom, Erza.” Jellal lifted one hand. Power roiled around him, lifted his hair, curled off his skin like smoke. He laughed. “My power's returned.”

* * *

The councillors stared, speechless. The technicians were panicking. “The tower's absorbed all the energy!”  
  
“Collecting magic in that sort of concentration – if it's not dispersed quickly, it'll explode!”  
  
“What in the world is happening?”  
  
“We've been had,” Yajima said. “We've been had! Damn it!”  
  
The railing crumbled under his fingers. The floor cracked. The technicians hopped back, croaking in alarm. Fragments of plaster fell from the ceiling.  
  
“What's this?” said one of the councillors.  
  
“The building's aging too quickly!”  
  
“Is this Arc of Time magic?” Org said, aghast. As the walls collapsed, rust spread over the newly-exposed ironwork, and a loud crack echoed through the hall as the ceiling sheered away from its supports.  
  
“The hall's collapsing!” Belno shouted.  
  
“We have to re-” Leiji started, before a chunk of rock landed on his head. It was chaos. Technicians and councillors ran in all directions, screaming, as the palace fell apart around them. The floor shook. Was the hall about to fall into the cellars? Yajima stared around and saw Ultear, standing serenely amid the panic, both hands lifted up as if in prayer.  
  
“Ultear! What are you doing?”  
  
“It's all for Sieg,” she says. “No – for Jellal. His dream is about to be fulfilled.”

* * *

“Heavenly Blast!” Jellal swiped his right hand back, two fingers extended. A sphere of golden light rushed towards Erza. It threw her off her feet and sent her skidding over the crystal floor into an outcrop of lacrima. Her katana was torn from her grip.  
  
“Where's your bluster from before?” Jellal taunted. “Did you use up all your strength fighting Ikaruga?”  
  
Erza yanked a massive sword out of her armoury and attacked him again. He dodged smoothly aside from a blow that should have cut him in half starting from the top of his head.  
  
“The Council will be completely paralysed by now. I have to thank Ultear for that-”  
  
“Shut up!” Erza yelled. “Shut! Up!” She swung her sword at his head and, as he ducked under it, pivoted and snapped a roundhouse kick into the side of his head.  
  
“Ugh! Heavenly Arrows!”  
  
Erza deflected the bolts of light off her sword, but the moment of distraction allowed Jellal to bounce to the top of a lacrima pillar, out of her reach.  
  
“Well, it's been fun, Erza,” he called down, “but time is short! I think we'd better wrap this up here, don't you?” Golden light flared around him. “Meteor!” He leapt down from the pillar and shot towards Erza.  
  
Erza swung her sword up to meet his rush, but the blade whistled through empty air and then suddenly Jellal kicked her in the side. She went down with a cry but stabbed upwards as she hit the ground. Jellal wasn't there any more.  
  
“I won't let any of your attacks hit me, Erza!”  
  
She scrambled to her feet, trying to judge where he was coming from, and he blasted her in the back. She was sent skidding across the floor, and the massive sword was torn from her grip. He'd got so fast! But she could match that. The flame-patterned pants disappeared, replaced by the cheetah-spotted Flight Armour. A pair of knives, with pommels shaped like snarling sabretooth heads, dropped into her grip. As he swept in for another attack, Erza leapt to her feet. Jellal threw a punch at her. Erza spun and slammed her elbow into his ribs. Jellal dropped to the ground and scythed her legs out from under her with a kick.  
  
As she went down, Erza rolled back onto her knuckles and sprang back to her feet. “Sonic Claw!” She charged him. Jellal lifted one hand, a ball of dark energy gathering in his palm, but she was faster. Her knives flashed. Dozens of thin gashes opened up across Jellal's arms and chest.  
  
“Augh! Meteorite Field!” He flung one arm out wide. A hundred small balls of light appeared around him and bombarded Erza. The barrage flung her backwards into the wall but still kept battering at her. Missiles rained down like hailstones. Erza dropped the knives, doubled over and covered her head with her arms. When the onslaught stopped, she sprawled on the floor, wheezing. The attack had pummelled all the air out of her, and her arms and back burned.  
  
“I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're still conscious, Erza.” Jellal smiled fondly, and stooped to inspect the craters left behind by the missiles that hadn't hit. Something like vapour curled from the edges of each hole. Jellal frowned. “It looks like I overdid it.”  
  
Well, of _course_ he didn't want the _tower_ damaged.  
  
Wait. He didn't want the tower damaged. Would that make it lose its power?  
  
Jellal turned to her. “We'll have to hurry. Right, Erza?” In answer, Erza clambered to her feet. Jellal rolled his eyes. “Are you still trying?”  
  
“You don't know what you're dealing with,” Erza growled. “I'm a mage of Fairy Tail!” The Flight Armour shimmered and was replaced by the Morning Star armour. Its twin sabers dropped into her hands. “Photon Slicer!” She clapped the blades together and blasted blazing yellow energy at Jellal. Even though he hadn't expected that she could attack from a distance, he dodged easily and laughed.  
  
“You missed me!”  
  
“I wasn't aiming for you!”  
  
Jellal spun around. The spell had blown a lacrima pillar to splinters. His face twisted with rage. “You're attacking my tower?” He bared his teeth. “That's not acceptable, Erza. I'll put you down now!”  
  
“Come on, then!” Erza shouted. “You're not going to win, Jellal! You will face justice in front of the Council you deceived!”  
  
Jellal swiped one hand back again, two fingers extended. “Heavenly Blast!” Erza switched instantly to the Flight Armour and dived aside from the surge of light. He'd poured more energy into the spell that time. Behind her, the tower splintered, and the spell had carved a deep furrow in the ground.  
  
“Now you're just damaging the tower yourself!” she yelled. Jellal snarled. He wasn't glowing any more. So his Meteor magic wasn't activated? “Requip: Giant's Armour!” The gold-plated surcoat materialised around her. She drew the lance from her armoury and hurled it over Jellal's head.  
  
Jellal gestured sharply, and a massive hand of dark swirling energy burst out of the lacrima wall and snatched the lance out of the air before it could hit. When he closed his fist, the weapon snapped between the hand's fingers. Even as the lance had left her hand, though, Erza was already switching back to the Morning Star armour and its twin sabers. She charged the swords with power, focusing on creating the thinnest, sharpest cutting edge she could, and swung them both down together with a cry of exertion. “Hah!” The twin arcs of energy shot straight for Jellal.  
  
He was caught by surprise, there wasn't time to make a shield. He dodged. He leapt straight up and somersaulted, and the glowing arcs passed harmlessly underneath. They slashed through the base of the wall behind him and vanished. For a moment Jellal looked apprehensive, but as seconds ticked by and nothing happened, he smiled. “Are you getting tired, Erza?”  
  
The wall behind him broke in two. Jellal whipped around. Cracks raced up to the ceiling. Jellal shouted and threw up one hand. A vast magical circle materialised above him and, with a roar like a landslide, half the upper layers of the tower collapsed onto it. A ripple spread across the shield with every impact. Erza threw her arms up as a shield against the choking dust.  
  
“My _tower_!” Jellal shouted, ashen with rage. The shield tipped over, to pour the wreckage onto Erza's head. "I spent _eight years_ building this, Erza!"  
  
“You didn't build it!” Erza shouted. She lunged forward. Chunks of lacrima crashed to the floor behind her. “Simon and the others did!” Something smashed into her from behind and knocked her flat on the floor. “Hgh!” She shoved herself up on one elbow and looked back.  
  
A fragment of the tower lay on the floor beside her. He'd slammed it into her back with telekinesis. Ugh. What a simple trick to miss!  
  
As the dust settled, Jellal let out a roar of fury. Half of the tower was gone. One immense, perfect lacrima crystal still reached up to the sky, above layers honeycombed with rooms and passages, but on the other side the hall was now open to the night sky. A cold wind whistled around them.  
  
Erza laughed breathlessly and croaked, “Fairy Tail mages specialise in property damage.”  
  
“ _Unforgivable_ ,” Jellal snarled. He crossed both arms over his head with a hiss. A point of light glowed between his hands, and then vanished inside a growing sphere of absolute blackness like a hole in the world. Sour, twisted magical energy emanated from it.  
  
“You can't kill me!” Erza yelled at him. “Don't you need a sacrifice?” She tried to push herself up. Her arms shook.  
  
“True,” Jellal said. “To revive a mage of Zeref's calibre, I need a sacrifice on par with one of the Wizard Saints. But at this point, it doesn't really matter! You signed your own death warrant, Erza!” Tiny points of light glittered like galaxies within the vortex. “Fall into the endless darkness! _Altairis_!”  
  
One last thought made Erza grin savagely – even if he killed her, his plan had failed. The swirling black magic filled her vision. She shut her eyes.  
  
The spell didn't hit. Erza heard the impact, and a cry; she felt the wind whip around her and lacrima shrapnel sting her arms. She opened her eyes. Sho was lying on the floor. The impact of the spell had thrown him almost at her feet. “Sho? Sho!” His purple coat had been turned to smoking rags.  
  
“That little bug was still crawling around?” Jellal said.  
  
“Why were you here? Why didn't you escape?” Erza cried, clutching at him.  
  
“You saved me,” Sho said. “Wanted to... be... even...” Blood welled out of his mouth.  
  
“We were already even! You didn't have to do that!” She grabbed his hand, squeezed it tight and shook. “Don't try to speak!”  
  
“Sis,” Sho said. The light went out of his eyes.  
  
“No!” Erza gasped. She pushed at him weakly. He lay still. His eyes were so empty. No, no, not both of them... How could he? How could he? Jellal, their leader, so loyal, so kind... how could he have done this? She remembered him standing up to take Sho's punishment, eight years ago.  
  
“That was pathetic!” Jellal said. “What was that supposed to achieve? I knew Sho liked making pointless dramatic gestures, but that was ridiculous!” He laughed. Erza stared down at Sho's empty eyes. “It doesn't change anything! Nobody's leaving this tower alive!” Yes, Erza thought. Suddenly everything was very clear. Nobody was leaving this tower alive.  
  
Jellal would never have done this. Jellal was already dead. They'd killed him in the punishment room, eight years ago, before she ever had a chance to save him. She didn't know how, some twisted dark magic, but they'd killed him and put a monster into his body.  
  
She understood perfectly. Her thoughts turned cold and sharp, all regret and grief and remorse falling away until nothing remained but the edge of the blade. That wasn't Jellal. It was an abomination wearing his skin, it was the thing that killed him and killed Simon and killed Sho, and every second that it still existed was intolerable.  
  
It was pressing its right hand against its left shoulder. Erza thought for a moment – it had been casting spells one-handed, and it had fallen when it tried to catch itself on both hands. One of the others had managed to injure it, before they'd escaped.  
  
She laid Sho's hand carefully on his chest. She knew how to kill it now. As she stood up, it bared its teeth.  
  
“Is that a good idea, Erza? Aren't you running out of friends?”  
  
“Requip: Flight Armour!” The two knives dropped into Erza's hands. She charged the monster with all the speed the Flight Armour could give her, from its left side, and slashed at it with her knives. It couldn't react quickly enough. Her knives bit deep into its arm and side. It howled. Dark magic seethed around its right hand.  
  
“Shadow Architeuthis!” It flung the dark energy at Erza, and the spell exploded into a mass of tentacles. Erza requipped a pair of short swords in a blur and hacked through the tentacles. The pieces left craters where they hit the floor. Erza attacked again, a scream boiling up in her throat.  
  
“You can't beat me, Erza!” The monster dodged a downwards slash. Erza kept pressing forwards, always moving to stay on its left hand side, hammering away at it even though her swords were growing heavy and sweat dripped down her back. The creature was raving. “I will create a new world! Zeref spoke to me out of the darkness, Erza! He told me so!”  
  
It tried to blast her with a ray of dark energy. Erza switched instantly to the Black Wing Armour and heard a crack behind her as she shot upwards, as if the spell had destroyed the air molecules themselves.  
  
“I am the chosen one!” The monster's voice had risen to a deranged shriek. “Together with Zeref, I will create a new world of freedom!”  
  
“You're not free! You're shackled to a ghost!” Erza screamed. “And I won't be any more!” She dived. “Moon Flash!” She shot past the creature on its left side. Her sword flashed, and a deep gash opened up across its abdomen. It doubled over with a cry of pain.  
  
“Meteor!” Golden light blazed up around it. As Erza spun and brought her swords down, it scrambled out from under the blow and sprang to the top of a lacrima pillar. “This is the end, Erza!” Both its hands moved. Complicated glyphs appeared in a blur. “Abyss Break!” It threw both arms up over its head and a massive magical seal appeared in front of it, easily twice its own height, big enough to bring down the whole tower.  
  
Erza realised what was about to happen the moment before it did, and raised her swords. The monster jerked and faltered as the damaged muscles in its left shoulder spasmed. The magical seal failed. Erza leapt through the seal as it fell apart, and drove both swords through the monster's chest up to the hilt. It stumbled back, catching at her arm. They both crashed to the floor ten feet below.

The impact knocked all the air out of Erza's lungs, and she had to sprawl on the floor and wheeze for a few seconds before she could roll onto her elbows. The monster was lying on its side, both swords impaled clear through its chest, its eyes wide and shocked. Erza dragged herself over to it. She pushed herself up, one hand on its chest - she could feel its heart hammering under her hand - grasped one of the hilts and pulled. The blade came free with a gush of blood. The monster convulsed and fell back against the floor. “I loved him,” Erza told it breathlessly, as if it could understand. “I loved all of them. But I was so in love with him.”  
  
It tried to say her name. She grabbed the hilt of the sword still in its chest, twisted and yanked the sword free. The monster gasped and finally went limp. Erza let the swords return to her armoury, and then she stroked Jellal's hair, silently, and watched the monster die. Around her, the glow of the lacrima brightened until it was almost unbearable.

* * *

More shards were dropping from the tower. They looked tiny as they fell, spinning over and over, but when they hit the sea they threw up massive plumes of spray and waves that crashed against the tower's base. Each fragment must have been several times Lucy's own weight.  
  
Then, suddenly, spears of pure magical energy burst out from the tower, like light shining through chinks in a door. Lucy yelped with shock. The beams pierced through the clouds above, and boiled the water instantly to steam where they hit the sea.  
  
“What's that?”  
  
“The tower!”  
  
“No way,” Gray rasped. “The Etherion's about to break free?”  
  
“Break free?” Lucy said, aghast.  
  
“Magical energy stored in such high concentrations is inherently unstable,” Juvia said. “If it isn't dispersed, it'll erupt into a massive explosion...”  
  
“What about Sho and Erza?” Wally said. “They're still in there!”  
  
“It's not just Erza and Sho,” Gray said. “If that thing goes off, _none_ of us are going to survive.”  
  
Lucy looked around wildly. Their bubble drifted, rising and falling easily with the waves. They wouldn't be able to get far enough away in time. There wasn't anything to take shelter behind. There wasn't anything except mile after mile of sea...  
  
“Juvia! How deep can you get us underwater?”

* * *

Erza let what was left of Jellal slide to the floor and limped back to Sho's body. She tugged one of his arms over her shoulder and stood. He barely weighed anything.  
  
The remaining spire of the tower was falling apart. Wreckage crashed to the ground all around them. As Erza stumbled across the hall, great rifts opened up in the floor. The tower was going to collapse underneath them.  
  
There was no chance. Even if she could get herself and Sho out of the tower, she couldn't get them far enough away from the explosion.  
  
“Sorry, Sho,” she whispered. “This tower will have to be our pyre.” She laid him down, folded his hands over his chest, and then stayed kneeling by his side. Would Gray and the others have got away? The ex-Phantom mages were probably pragmatic enough to have run and kept running, and dragged the others with them. She hoped they were all safe.  
  
More pieces crashed down around them, throwing up shrapnel and clouds of dust. The tower shook itself like a dog. Deep creaks and sharp cracks echoed from the levels below.  
  
Even when it was hopeless, Fairy Tail mages didn't just give in. “Requip: Adamantine Armour!” The armour solidified around her.  
  
At least she hadn't fallen to the monster. At least they could say it took Etherion to bring her down-

* * *

Juvia reached out both hands, and drew them in sharply. “Double Wave!” Water crashed over the top of their bubble. Juvia lifted her hands. It didn't feel as if they were sinking, it felt like the ocean was rising up to drown them. Lucy reached out wildly, found a hand – there was no way of telling whose – and held on tight.  
  
Even through a hundred feet of seawater, they saw the tower light up the sky.

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Erza woke up, she was lying in bed back at the Akane Resort. The late evening sun slanted in through the shuttered windows, and dust motes swirled in the narrow beams of light. She turned her head, with difficulty. Gray was dozing on the next bed over.  
  
“Gray?”  
  
He woke with a start. “Erza!”  
  
“Am I dead?”  
  
“...no,” Gray said. “Just busted up a bit.”  
  
Erza coughed. Her voice was rusty. “What happened?”  
  
“After we came back up, there wasn't anything left of the tower but one little pointy bit. We figured it was probably hopeless, but Lucy Ashley summoned Loke and asked him to go look for you - apparently because he's a stellar spirit, the magical field didn't affect him - and he found you lying on that little bit of rock. You've been out for three days." Gray shrugged. “It's not so bad. All you missed was the rest of us puking our guts up from Eternano poisoning.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Erza, what happened in there?” He sat down at the foot of her bed. “Loke didn't see Sho, or that tattooed bastard.”  
  
Erza closed her eyes. “Sho was... he was really brave. I wouldn't have survived without him.”  
  
Gray exhaled slowly.  
  
“I have to tell Wally and Millianna,” Erza said, suddenly distraught. “It was my fault! If I'd been stronger, or if I'd just killed it before Etherion-”  
  
“You're being too hard on yourself,” Gray said.  
  
“How can I face them now? Two of our friends died on my account-”  
  
“Don't say that!” His sudden vehemence startled her. “If someone gives their life for you, that's their choice, because they cared about you. And the only way you can repay them for it is to do your best with the time they gave you. Would Sho want you to be unhappy?” He kicked a heel against the side of the bed and added “It's not as though you had a choice. You had to fight Jellal.”

Belatedly, she remembered Deliora.  
  
“That wasn't Jellal. It was a monster.” Erza sat up with difficulty, pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “But...thank you, Gray.”

* * *

“I can't believe Gajeel lost!” Ryos said.  
  
“Well, all he does is punch people,” Lucy pointed out. “Which he's great at! Gajeel is fab at punching! But Juvia is immune to being punched.”  
  
“But he can't just lose! If he's going to lose, then what am I putting up with him for?” Ryos's voice cracked. “And he couldn't do anything against that tattooed guy!”  
  
“Well, neither could the rest of us,” Lucy said. She didn't know how Erza had beaten him and then survived Etherion, when the rest of them had been so completely helpless, and Simon-  
  
Lucy shook her head hard. She was glad Erza had survived, of course, but she was also starting to think that maybe Erza wasn't human. “Gajeel has positive traits,” she said. “Somewhere. Deep down. Very, very deep down. …I'll talk to him.” Juvia and Ryos both looked doubtful. Gajeel'd only really ever done solo missions in Phantom Lord. He'd never worked as a part of a team.

Maybe that was because he was _insufferable_.  
  
When Lucy tramped downstairs, Gajeel was in the courtyard, tossing plates high into the air and smashing them before they hit the ground. He glanced at her over his shoulder but didn't turn around.  
  
“How's Ryos doing?" More fragments of china came raining down. "Not that I care."  
  
“If you don't care I'd hate to waste your time by telling you,” Lucy said.  
  
“...maybe I care a little,” Gajeel said. “He dead or what?”  
  
“He's not dead at the moment,” Lucy said.  
  
“At the moment?” Gajeel wheeled about. “Don't screw around with me, princess! What's that mean?” He looked genuinely concerned – or at least, Lucy thought so, because his worried face was very similar to his angry face. She relented.  
  
“He'll be fine. Dragon Slayers are pretty resilient, right?”  
  
“Hell yeah,” Gajeel agreed, relieved, and turned away again. Lucy counted. It was eight seconds before he caught on. “Hey! How'd you figure that out?”  
  
“He did Dragon Slayer magic,” Lucy said. “Why didn't you tell us? And why didn't you beat up that guitar guy for Juvia? You wasted time and put us at risk!”  
  
“Didn't realise the rain woman couldn't do her own fighting,” Gajeel snapped. “And you two were fine!”  
  
“That's not the point!” Lucy said. “The point is that apparently when we ask for your help, you're not willing to give it! In fact, you're actively trying to hold us back! If you want to take solo missions, then fine, do whatever you want on them, but if you're working with the rest of us then you need to work with us.” Lucy was trying hard not to raise her voice, and failing. “If you're not going to be a team player then you don't get to play on the team. If you're not going to help us out, then I'm not going to work with you any more, and if _I_ don't then Juvia won't, and then we'll steal Ryos and you'll have to go and see if there's any guild that'll still take you!”  
  
Gajeel blanched.  
  
Okay, that was harsh. Lucy sighed. “It's just... you make it really hard to be your friend sometimes, you know.”  
  
“Fine. If you lot are completely incapable of taking care of yourselves,” Gajeel said sulkily, and turned away. “I want a rematch with Lockser.”  
  
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Matching up badly against one person doesn't suddenly make you a loser, you know-”  
  
“Don't care,” Gajeel said.  
  
“I'll see what I can do, if you behave. Deal?” Lucy said. Gajeel cussed under his breath, but nodded.  
  
“Good! And you should train Ryos more!” she yelled back over her shoulder as she left. Gajeel responded with profanity.

* * *

“Oi! What do you think you're doing? You little punk!”  
  
The guy standing next to the chocolate-coated bananas was really mad for some reason.  
  
“What?” Millianna said, around the banana. “They were just lying around, so I thought I'd try one. They looked yummy.”  
  
“They're for sale! You can't go around eating them just because you feel like it!”  
  
“For sail?” Millianna repeated blankly. She looked at the banana. She didn't see where it was supposed to attach to the mast. “I don't know if that would work?”  
  
“I don't really know what's going on here, but if you wanted to keep them, you shouldn't really have left them just lying around,” Wally said.  
  
“Oh, or you could have put your name on them,” Millianna said. “I don't think you've got enough bananas, though, even for a little boat.”  
  
The guy with the bananas was still mad. “Shut up and pay me! Cash! Hand it over!”  
  
“Cash?” Millianna repeated, and looked at Wally.  
  
“Uh, 'cash' – that's – um – I never actually saw any in real life!” Wally said.  
  
“What? Pull the other one! Pay up!” A ring of people had gathered around them.

Millianna thought and then suggested, around the banana, "Let's run for it!"  
  
They spun on their heels and fled, shoving through the dense crowds. There were far too many people. There were as many people just in this street than Millianna thought lived in the whole tower, and beyond this street there were dozens more, not just the one that ran through the houses at the foot of the tower.  
  
“Oi! Get back here!” the guy with the bananas yelled, and other voices took up the cry. Millianna glanced back. “They're chasing us! I'll stop them!” She wheeled around, hands out. “Nekosoku Tube!” Thick cords wound tightly around the first few pursuers. They tumbled to the ground, and the ones immediately behind fell over them.  
  
“Nice one, Millianna!” Wally gasped. They ran away from the seafront, leaving behind the yelling crowds and the jangling machinery that seemed to exist just to whirl people around. “Where was that place Erza was staying?”  
  
“Stop, thieves!”  
  
Wally and Millianna both skidded to a stop. Eight men in stripy tunics were blocking their way. They all had spears. They looked okay with using them.  
  
“I think these guys are mad too,” Millianna said.

* * *

“...and then they grounded us,” Millianna finished.  
  
“Arrested, Millianna. They call it 'arrested',” Erza said. She turned to the soldier on guard. “I'll pay the fine. Let them go.”  
  
The soldier frowned. “It's a bit worse than just stealing and using magic against civilians. Aren't they two of the people who kidnapped you last week?”  
  
“Yes, but I don't care about that any more!”  
  
“'Fraid the government does, though.”  
  
“It was a misunderstanding! They're my friends,” Erza snapped.  
  
The soldier looked at her, swathed head to toe in bandages. “Right. What's that thing called? Staphylococcus syndrome?”  
  
“I am _not_ suffering from-”  
  
“Hey, Erza, it's okay,” Wally said. “We got ourselves into trouble. We'll get ourselves out of it.”  
  
Erza turned back to them. “What?”  
  
“We lived in that tower for-” Millianna counted on her fingers for a second, and then settled on “-forever, and now we want to live in the outside world.”  
  
“There's a ton of stuff we don't know-”  
  
“Yeah, like, why didn't that guy just put his name on his stuff if he liked it that much?”  
  
“-but we'll learn it, right?” Wally scratched the back of his neck. “Man, dandy men aren't supposed to jaw this much. Sho used to do all the talking.”  
  
“We already caused you loads of trouble, and we don't want to keep relying on other people all our lives,” Millianna said.  
  
“So we're going to make it by ourselves from now on. And if that starts with getting grounded-”  
  
“Arrested, meow,” Millianna corrected.  
  
“-then we'll deal with it, yeah?"  
  
“Yeah! We'll make it somehow!” Millianna chirped.  
  
“Is that really what you want?” Erza asked.  
  
“Yeah. We know it'll be hard,” Millianna said, “but we want to live in the outside world and find our own freedom. We figure that's what Sho and Simon would want us to do.”  
  
Erza looked at their scared, determined faces. She closed her eyes and dropped her head. “With a will like that, you should be able to do anything. I'm glad. However-” She lifted her chin again. “There are three rules that I'm required to tell anyone leaving Fairy Tail. So you'd better listen up!”  
  
“Erza, we didn't join Fairy Tail,” said Wally.  
  
Erza gripped the bars of the cell and leant in close. “Rule one: you must never reveal sensitive information about Fairy Tail to outsiders, as long as you live!”  
  
“Did we join Fairy Tail?” Millianna asked Wally, confused. “We'd have noticed, right?”  
  
“Two, you must never use the clients you met through the guild for personal gain!”  
  
“What's a client?” said Millianna.  
  
“The third and last rule is that though our paths are diverging, you must always live out your lives with all your might!” Tears dripped down Erza's cheeks. Wally yelped with surprise. “You must never treat your own lives as insignificant, and never forget the friends you held dear!”  
  
“Erza!” Millianna wailed. They hugged through the cell bars, sobbing.  
  
“To be honest,” Erza gasped, “I'd really like to stay with you guys forever, but if that would mean I was holding you back, then I just want to wish you well for the journey!”  
  
“That's not it at all!” Millianna protested.  
  
“If we hung around, we'd just bring up bad memories for you!” said Wally.  
  
“Even if our memories are painful, they're what keeps us going to tomorrow and makes us stronger!” Erza said. “I'd never want to forget any of you!” She wrapped both arms around them and pulled them close. They clung to each other, weeping.  
  
The soldier on guard slowly backed out of the room.

* * *

It had taken an hour and a half by train and another half-hour of waiting in the lobby before Lahar emerged from the tangle of offices that made up the 4th Custody Enforcement Squad's headquarters. Then she had to call him eight times before he looked up hazily from the coffee machine and realised she was there. Juvia decided it was worth it.  
  
“Juvia! I'm very sorry, I didn't hear you. Are you well? I heard that you were involved, but I couldn't reach you.” There were shadows under his eyes and his shoelaces were undone.  
  
“Juvia does not mind! She knows you must be working very hard,” she said, as Lahar made himself a mug of industrial-strength coffee. (The other options read 'morning', 'all-nighter' and 'fatal caffeine overdose'.)  
  
“I can take a moment to talk to you. If you would-” He gestured to the bench along the wall. Juvia sat, and Lahar settled down beside her. Juvia immediately wriggled along and rested her head against his shoulder.  
  
Lahar looked down at the top of Juvia's head, looked guiltily around the room – several administrators ducked under their desks to hide their smirks – and then patted her gingerly on the back.  
  
“I hope you'll forgive the disarray,” he said. “Our time is severely limited.”  
  
“What's happening?” Juvia asked.  
  
Lahar took a sip of his coffee. “The remaining councillors will most likely resign, which will force the Council to shut down, and the majority of its employees – essentially everyone but the disaster crews and those directly responsible for the security of Council buildings – will be put on temporary leave.” He pronounced the word 'leave' as if it meant 'syphilis'. “All investigations will have to be halted, and the recruits currently in training won't be able to graduate. They'll be forced to choose between training for another year and leaving... am I boring you?”  
  
“Not at all,” Juvia said, but then she hadn't been listening so much as admiring Lahar's pretty purple eyes. “Please, go on.”  
  
Lahar relaxed. “So you see, it's vital that we get as much done as possible now. We're trying to trace Ultear Milkovich and the other members of the cult.”  
  
“The ex-slaves?” Juvia said. “Does Lahar believe they will be found?”  
  
“I hope so,” Lahar said bluntly, “since the alternative is that Councillor Sieg- Jellal Fernandes killed all of them.”  
  
Juvia covered her mouth with one hand and looked up at him, wide-eyed.  
  
“Many trails are already turning up,” Lahar added. “Being ex-slaves and isolated, they don't have the knowledge necessary to go unnoticed. Of course, they still have to be brought to justice; it's naïve to think that a movement will die merely because its leader did. We can't permit a Zeref cult to take root here.”  
  
“Two were already arrested in Akane Town,” Juvia said. “Old friends of the Titania's.” And, therefore, _also_ friends of... Neither of them said it. “She believes them harmless.” She pursed her lips.  
  
“You disagree?”  
  
Juvia pouted. “One of them tried to tie up Lucy... they do seem confused and disaffected, but they may be pretending. Juvia thinks that under the circumstances, she would pretend to be confused as well.”  
  
“What are their names?”  
  
“Wally Buchanan and Millianna, no last name.” Lahar clearly made a mental note of both, then looked at her more closely and frowned. “Are you all right? You look as if you've been ill.”  
  
“We have all been ill. Etherion was fired at us and we were lucky to survive,” Juvia said, “so, yes, Juvia is a little upset-” She sat up abruptly and clapped both hands to her reddening face.  
  
Juvia's friends had been attacked by the Council. Lahar worked for the Council. But Lahar was so honourable and pretty! Juvia was so conflicted!  
  
Lahar caught one of her hands. “I'm sorry. I expected you would be aggrieved. The situation was-”  
  
“Did Lahar approve? Would Lahar have done the same thing?”  
  
“Etherion should not be fired except as a last resort. Particularly not when it's known that innocent parties could be killed,” Lahar said shortly, and hesitated. “Under the circumstances, the legions should have been dispatched instead. It's preferable to lose Rune Knights over civilians, given the choice. We all knew the mortality rate when we signed up. The councillors were manipulated and acted... rashly.” The corners of his mouth turned down. “But it's hardly my place to question their decisions.”  
  
It clearly caused Lahar physical pain to criticise his superiors, even when they had been blatantly deceived by a Zeref cultist, so Juvia relented. “Juvia is sorry for shouting. ….Juvia is unhappy with her own performance, too. She was not able to protect Lucy from Fukuro the owl man, and she was totally helpless against Jellal Fernandes. Lucy and Juvia's other friends could all have been killed!”  
  
“Calm down,” Lahar ordered. “Despite everything, all your companions escaped the tower alive. Correct?”  
  
Juvia nodded.  
  
“Then you must have done something right. As a lieutenant, I'm expected to command a platoon – no matter how hard you try, against some enemies, all that you can do is trust in the abilities of the people you're responsible for. And your companions clearly acquitted themselves well enough.” He exhaled. “If it's any consolation, it's statistically _very_ unlikely that you'll face an opponent of that level again.”

Juvia threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. "Lahar is so reassuring!"

Lahar looked slightly terrified. Fortunately, at that moment, another Rune Knight teleported in.

“Lahar!” He was facing the wrong direction. He turned around and yelled again. “Lahar! ...what are you doing? You're not paid to cuddle pretty girls, lieutenant!”  
  
Lahar hurriedly untangled himself. “Juvia, this is Agent Doranbolt, allegedly an intelligence officer. Doranbolt, Miss Lockser.” Juvia contemplated murdering Doranbolt, and then recalled that she was surrounded by Rune Knights.  
  
“Charmed,” Doranbolt said. “It's good news, Lahar! Some of the cultists have been tracked into Bosco. We're assigned to follow them.”  
  
“That's not good news,” Lahar said.  
  
“I don't know. They do good food in Bosco. Come on!”  
  
Lahar stood. “I have to go, Juvia. I'll contact you when I can.”  
  
“Wait! Juvia wished to give you these,” Juvia said, and reached into her bag. Blushing, she held out a stack of packed lunches. Lahar blinked.  
  
“Thank you. That's very kind.” He took the pile.

"Though-" Juvia touched her index fingers together. "Lahar may not need them, if the food in Bosco is-"

"I'm sure they'll be significantly superior," Lahar said. Juvia went pink from her hairline down to the neck of her blouse.  
  
“This is lovely, and I hate to interrupt," Doranbolt said, "but the cultists aren't going to arrest themselves, you know-" And he teleported them both to a windswept hill above Bosco's capital. “Put those away – wait, are those steamed buns?” Lahar had looked inside the topmost lunchbox. "Are those steamed buns with a little picture of you on them?"

"Juvia is a very gifted cook," Lahar said, and stowed the lunchboxes under his cloak where Doranbolt couldn't steal them or look inside.  
  
“Marry that woman,” Doranbolt suggested. “Quickly. Next week. Before she gets to know you better.”

* * *

“The Council will have to take responsibility for their failure,” Ultear said. “They may even have to step down entirely.” She settled deeper into the tub and sighed with satisfaction as the hot water washed around her shoulders. Steam drifted through the bathroom.  
  
“Excellent, Ultear.” A tinny voice echoed out of the communications lacrima set by the tub. “And what of Jellal?”  
  
Ultear shrugged. “Who knows? Perhaps he actually died.” She stood. Water dripped down her back, over the mark of her true guild, Grimoire Heart. “Without ever realising that he was being used by the woman he thought he was was manipulating. How pathetic.” She laughed and scooped up a towel. “Well, it was enjoyable. He was rather cute, wasn't he?” She bent over and started to towel her hair dry. “But to think he never realised that I played the part of Zeref's ghost!” Well, it had been a virtuoso performance, even if it was assisted by a healthy dose of compulsion magic. And everything had gone off perfectly. And while Jellal was distracting the council, she had been able to enter their secret vault and steal one of the items kept there. With most of Era collapsed on top of it, it could be months before the loss was known.  
  
“You did very well, Ultear,” her master said. “My congratulations.”  
  
“Thank you!” Ultear smiled. Her master cut the connection there. Still smiling, Ultear wrapped the towel around herself and tied her hair up into a ponytail. “ _So_ sorry, Jellal – but there was no hope of you reviving Zeref from the start. No, there was no chance of anyone ever raising him from the dead, because he was never dead to begin with.” He was only imprisoned, and sleeping. And now her master held one more of the keys to his release. What could possibly stop them?

* * *

“Gray?” Erza called, when she heard him pass her door. He stuck his head in.  
  
“What's up?”  
  
“Look.” She'd been cleaning her twin swords, scouring off every trace of blood, but when he came in she set them aside and passed him a newspaper. Gray didn't really read the papers, but Erza had been keeping up with them for the last few days. The coverage had been fairly confused and garbled – Etherion might have been fired, Era is definitely collapsed, maybe a councillor did a thing? We're not sure, but we think it was a really bad thing?  
  
Apparently, now the version of events was that _two_ councillors had done a bad thing.  
  
“Ultear,” Erza said. “She was working with that creature.”  
  
Gray looked at the picture, a young dark-haired woman with a demure smile. His eyes widened. He drew in a sharp breath.  
  
“You think he – 'it' – was manipulating her as well?”  
  
“No. I think they were working together,” Erza said.  
  
“How do you know?” Gray asked. He didn't say, _are you sure you don't just want to blame someone you can still fight_?  
  
“I just don't like how she's smiling,” Erza said.  
  
Gray looked at the picture again, and the corners of his mouth turned down.  
  
“I'm going to find out exactly what she had to do with this,” Erza said. “And then I'll defeat her and make her face justice.”  
  
Gray was still looking at the picture, but he said “If that's what you want to do, then I'll help. If you need my help, that is. Sheesh, beating that guy and then surviving Etherion? You're more of a monster every day.”  
  
Erza looked down at her hands and the bandages layered across her knuckles. She'd barely had the power to summon the Adamantine Armour. She'd never thought it would save her life. It was only meant as a token of defiance.  
  
But if she hadn't protected herself from the Etherion, who would have? She didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to wonder if there had still been any trace of Jellal left when she put two swords through that thing's chest.  
  
Gray was frowning at her. Erza leant over and gave him a hug. “Thank you, Gray. I think I've had enough of this holiday now, though.”  
  
“Agreed,” Gray said. “Let's go home.”


	23. How Laxus Stole The Harvest Festival

It was close to noon, and Fairy Tail's Team Megadeath were standing in the middle of Magnolia's main street. Their leader, Mickey Chickentiger, stood a little in front of her underlings and watched her opponent with narrowed eyes. A crowd of curious onlookers had gathered around them.  
  
“Are you busy, or something?” Kageyama said. “I can't keep this up forever.”  
  
“I'm assessing the situation!” Mickey said. “You're the one always saying I don't assess the situation.” She took her magical bird Pii off her head, put it carefully on top of Mikuni Shin's, spat on her hands and rubbed them together. “Okay. Watch this!”  
  
She charged and jumped. Both boots landed squarely on the back of one of the writhing snakes that made up Kageyama's Shadow Orochi. It jerked away. “Augh!” Mickey tipped forward but managed to catch herself with a boot on another one's head. “Yeek!” She hopped and flailed and jumped, somehow managing to stay on top of the Shadow Orochi.  
  
“It's like an infinitely prolonged fall,” Kageyama said.  
  
Mickey grabbed onto one of the snakes with both hands. It flapped her around like a flag. “Augh!” The snake shook her off. She tumbled backwards, arms pinwheeling. Kageyama gestured, and the snakes caught her before her head bounced off the pavement. “Oof!”  
  
Kageyama cancelled the spell and dropped her onto the street.  
  
“Ow!”  
  
“One minute twenty-seven seconds,” Mikuni reported. The townspeople cheered.  
  
“Awesome!” Mickey scrambled up. “Let's do it again!”  
  
“That's my strongest spell, not a mechanical bull,” Kageyama said.  
  
Mickey blew a raspberry. “I'm aiming for two minutes now! Mikuni, do an awesome drum soundtrack, I think it'll help!” She spun around, ready to go again. The crowd cheered.  
  
“What are you doing? Don't you get that people can see you?”  
  
Mickey spun around. Laxus loomed over her.  
  
“We were just having some fun,” Mickey said, edging backwards.  
  
“Well, stop it! Everyone's laughing at you!” Laxus could go from apparent calm to screaming frothing-at-the-mouth forehead-veins-popping rage in 0.8 seconds. The crowd cleared out at Meteor speed. “Who's this punk?” He glared at Kageyama. “Isn't he that guy who tried to kill off the old geezers at their meeting?”  
  
“Oh, yeah,” Mickey said, in a small voice. “We forgot about that.”  
  
Laxus bared his teeth and snarled. “And that old fart let him join? This is why people look down on us! Shit like this! What's the old man thinking?” He let out a roar of wordless fury and slammed a fist into the ground. Electricity erupted from the ground all around Kageyama. He howled. Mickey and Mikuni both cried out in shock.  
  
“I'll show you what happens to people who mess with Fairy Tail!” Laxus shouted. As Kageyama crumpled, he grabbed him by the collar, hauled him up again and spiked him into the ground. “It's all your fault! You should just die!”  
  
“Stop it! Laxus!” Mickey yelled. She tried to haul Laxus away by his coat but only managed to yank it off his shoulders. “Stop it, you psycho!” She hammered her fists on his back.  
  
Laxus spun around, grabbed her by the front of her dress and flung her away from him. She hit the ground with a yell. “Shut up! Weaklings should keep their mouths shut!” He flung a bolt of lightning at her.  
  
Mikuni dived between them, caught the lightning on his drumsticks and redirected it into the ground. The paving stones cracked. Mikuni staggered back.  
  
Laxus stared at them. His eyes narrowed.  
  
“Crap, we're dead,” Mickey said faintly.  
  
Kageyama rose out of the ground behind them and both by the shoulder. They fell back into their shadows.  
  
A few streets away, Kageyama transformed them back and then sat down hard on the ground.  
  
“Kage! Are you okay?”  
  
“I'm fine,” Kageyama said, and leant against the wall, one arm wrapped around his ribs. His face was grey and his spiky ponytail was standing on end.  
  
“You really look like a pineapple right now,” Mickey told him.  
  
“Thanks. Appreciate that,” said Kageyama.  
  
“So how long has Laxus been a total psychopath? Because before I would have sworn he was just a jerk,” said Mikuni.

* * *

“Useless soft trash,” Laxus snarled under his breath as he stomped away. “This isn't the guild I want!” Just a few days earlier, in some backwater village, he'd had to fry some bigmouthed monkey talking shit about his guild. Had the old man set out to make Fairy Tail into a farce? Eisenwalders were wearing the guild symbol. Natsu'd been sent to juvenile detention, but Laxus just knew the old man would welcome him back with open arms once he got out. A swimming pool – what sort of guild had a pool? It was a place to work, not a place to lie around! Fairies playing stupid games in the street like children and the old man didn't do anything about it! Fairies arguing with him to his face, trying to attack him over a piece of Eisenwald trash? Lightning crackled between his gritted teeth. They were a laughingstock! Fiore's national punchline! How had the old man let things get this bad?  
  
Two weeks until the Festival, he reminded himself. Then he'd fix it. Then he'd beat all this childish bullshit and disrespect out of them.

* * *

Evergreen snapped her fan open. “You laughed at us just now, yes?”  
  
“You fools! You utter fools!” Bickslow cackled.  
  
The few dark mages left cursed and scrambled back to their feet. “You want to fight, you bastards? You're not getting out of here alive!”  
  
“A little cockroach guild like this, challenging upstanding legal-guild mages like ourselves?” Evergreen said. She covered her mouth with her fan as she yawned. “What is the world coming to?” As three dark mages rushed her, she tipped her chin down and looked at them over the top of her glasses. They turned into stone.  
  
Bickslow howled with laughter. “Come on, babies! Let's show them what they're screwing with!”  
  
“Screwing with, screwing with,” his dolls chorused, and blasted the rest with narrow beams of green light.  
  
“Hahahahaha!”  
  
“Hahahahah,” the dolls mimicked.  
  
“That one's still moving, babies! Get him again!”  
  
“That's enough, Bickslow,” Freed said.  
  
“Aw!” Bickslow turned around. “It's over already?”  
  
Freed looked around at the heaps of unconscious bodies and said “I'm amazed that they managed to form a guild at all, being so weak.”  
  
“It's because they're so weak that they resorted to illegal activities,” Ever sniffed.  
  
Bickslow kicked a fallen mage. They didn't twitch. “This isn't good enough! Me and my babies need more fun than this!”  
  
“It's only ten days now until the Festival,” Freed said. “Isn't that sufficient excitement?”  
  
“The opposite, I would say,” Ever said. “With the Festival drawing closer, it's hard to find any entertainment in-” She looked around, and wrinkled her nose. “- pest control.”  
  
“We'll be facing more formidable opponents soon,” Freed promised them.

* * *

“Looks like the townspeople are all in a festival mood already,” Makarov said. Everywhere they looked they saw bunting strung up across the streets, and people setting up brightly-coloured stalls. They were putting up a carousel in the square east of the cathedral.  
  
“They are, aren't they?” Mira agreed. “And everyone's working so hard to prepare for the Fantasia! If only Laxus would join in this year.”  
  
Makarov scowled. “Don't talk to me about him.”  
  
“Mickey told me he's back in town,” Mira said. Mickey had told her a lot of other things about Laxus, too, using a lot of words she wouldn't like to repeat in front of her guild master. Mira thought there'd been some sort of argument.  
  
Makarov turned. “What?”  
  
“Is something wrong, master?”  
  
Makarov looked down. “To think he'd come back now...”  
  
It always meant trouble these days, when Laxus showed up. And combined with the biggest celebration in the guild's calendar, it meant _big_ trouble.  
  
When was it that they'd watched the parade together? Laxus had been young enough then that he was still shorter than Makarov. His grin threatened to split his head in two and his eyes were blown wide on sugar and fairground games. It was late in the evening, but with all the lights strung up around them the square was bright as day. “Aren't you taking part in the Fantasia, gramps?”  
  
“I promised we'd watch it together this year, remember?”  
  
“Oh yeah!” Laxus brightened up. It had been a few months ago, that promise, when he'd been ill again. The kid bounced off towards the street. “I want to join the guild, I want to join already!”  
  
“Not yet, not yet,” Makarov said mildly. At the end of the street, people were already crowded together. Laxus jumped up and down with frustration when he couldn't wriggle through them.  
  
“I can't see!”  
  
“Oh, that's a problem,” Makarov agreed cheerily. He scooped Laxus up onto his shoulders and activated his Titan magic. Laxus yelped and grabbed onto his cloak, then burst into excited laughter.  
  
“What do you think, Laxus? Those are the Fairy Tail mages.”  
  
“Wow!” His grandson's eyes had glowed with reflected light. “You must be the best master the guild ever had!”  
  
Makarov sighed. “Laxus... why on earth did you turn out the way you did?”

* * *

The night before the festival, Mira cleared up the bar, alone and singing quietly to herself. She put Max in the recovery position and prised the broom out of his embrace. That wasn't so bad, she'd found it in worse places. She leant the broom against the counter and went to collect up the empty glasses left on the tables.  
  
There were footsteps behind her.  
  
“Hello! Who's that?” Mira turned around.

* * *

Erza was still awake past midnight, cleaning one of the armours she meant to show off at the Miss Fairy Tail contest. It was already pretty clean. She worked on anyway, scouring each metal plate until it glowed. If she allowed herself to be idle, she would only start thinking about Millianna and Wally in prison, and Simon and Sho -  
  
Erza put the gauntlet she was polishing down in her lap, pressed the balls of both palms into her eyes, and held her breath.  
  
Somebody knocked on her door. Erza looked up.  
  
Who would be up at this time? Cana? She wiped her eyes, laid the armour aside and stood up. “Who is it?” There was no answer. Erza drew a sword from her armoury, crossed the room and opened the door.

* * *

Lucy's original plan, after the holiday with Erza and Gray that had ended so badly, had been to bait the mage who'd killed Karen Lilica into a trap, defeat her, take Aries' key back and then hand the killer over for justice (and reward money... okay, mostly the reward money.) Instead, she was having Cancer style people's hair before the Miss Fairy Tail contest. She'd promised she'd find him some people who really wanted their hair cut, hadn't she? And it was improving her stamina. And earning her money. It wasn't like she was scared.  
  
Cancer had just finished with that blue-haired girl – Libby? Levy? - and as a green-haired girl in a cowboy hat took her place, she came over to Lucy. “Hello!” Her headband had been replaced by a crown of white and orange flowers.  
  
“Hi!” Lucy answered, and added quickly “Erza invited us to see the festival.”  
  
“That's good! You really helped with that tower thing, didn't you?”  
  
Lucy looked down at the floor. “I wouldn't say helped. We were all kind of-” She trailed off and changed the subject to gross flattery. “Those flowers are so pretty! You look like a real fairy!”  
  
Levy blushed. “Cancer's a great hairdresser! You have a lot of gold keys like that, don't you?”  
  
“Oh, yeah... some,” Lucy said.  
  
Levy blinked. That was pretty monosyllabic. What Lucy should have said there was 'Yes! Four! That's one-third of all the gold keys there are! Let me tell you their names so you can tell all your friends about them!'  
  
Okay, she was a little scared. Lucy changed the subject again.  
  
“Where _is_ Erza? I haven't seen her all day.”  
  
“Mirajane hasn't been around, either,” Levy said. “They're probably planning a dramatic entrance for the competition. They're always a little competitive with each other. How are your friends? Did they come as well?”

* * *

The Hargeon Port Aquarium had baby turtles. Juvia was having a meltdown. “Oh, aren't they darling? Look at their tiny flippers!” She pressed one hand against the tank wall – the other was tucked firmly and possessively into the crook of Lahar's arm – and leant in to coo at them.  
  
Lahar looked at Juvia's smile reflected in the glass, and said “Yes. Very charming.”

* * *

“I don't think I want to eat that,” Ryos said.  
  
Gajeel scowled. “Why not?”  
  
“Um. It's a whole habanero,” Ryos said. He'd been mentally preparing for the worst ever since Gajeel had announced that they were going to do Secret Dragon Slayer Training, but he really hadn't been expecting Gajeel to make him eat chili peppers.  
  
“I beat that Salamander guy, yeah?” Gajeel said. “Which means you have to beat him, too!” He thumped his fist into his palm. “You have to build up your resistance to fire!”  
  
Ryos looked at the peppers on the plate and said “And you think this will work?”  
  
“Do you want to beat the Salamander or not?” Gajeel demanded.  
  
Ryos sighed, picked up a pepper and popped it into his mouth. His eyes widened. He squealed. “It's hot! It's really hot!”  
  
“Hot like fire!” Gajeel agreed. Ryos wailed and flapped a hand in front of his mouth.  
  
“It's really hot! Ow ow ow!”  
  
“Stop yelling and take it like a Dragon Slayer!” Gajeel ordered and, for a practical demonstration, bit down hard on a chili pepper himself. He chewed. He stopped chewing. His eyes bulged out of his head. He howled, ran to the sink and guzzled water straight out of the tap.  
  
While he was distracted, Ryos quickly binned the pepper he'd palmed instead of eating and then went to join him.

* * *

“Juvia's on a date, and Gajeel and Ryos are doing... actually I have no idea what they're doing, but it's not here,” said Lucy.  
  
“Oh, good,” Levy said, and then floundered. “I mean – I don't mean-”  
  
“No, it's fine, I've met Gajeel,” Lucy said. She was pretty sure Gajeel thought Levy was super cute. Sadly, though, Levy already knew Gajeel was a total asshole and that was probably an insurmountable romantic obstacle.  
  
The green-haired girl got up from the chair, a mass of ringlets spilling out from under her hat.  
  
“Oh, Bisca! You look so pretty!” Levy said.  
  
Bisca touched her curls. “Do you think Alzack will like it?”  
  
“Oh, yes,” Levy promised, clapping her hands.  
  
The relentless good cheer was starting to weird Lucy out. Since there weren't any other contestants there, she thanked Cancer, sent him back to the stellar spirit world and made her excuses. “Okay! Good luck, you guys!” She ducked out of the backstage area and stopped, blinking at the crowd. The hall was almost packed. It wasn't just Fairies, either; most of them looked like just regular townspeople. This competition was pretty popular, huh? Lucy slid down off the stage and started pushing through the crowd towards the bar.  
  
“Oh, it's Lucy Ashley!” Lucy looked around sharply and reached for her keys, just out of instinct. A Fairy grinned at her. “Hi! It's great to see you! How's Loke doing?”  
  
“Uh. Good?” Lucy said.  
  
“We heard you helped Erza out with that weird tower thing, too! Nice one!” another Fairy said.  
  
“Um, I wasn't all that helpful,” Lucy said.  
  
“That's not right!” A massive Fairy mage loomed over her. “Men take pride in what they achieve!” He thumped one fist into his palm. “Boast, like a man!”  
  
Lucy was now officially weirded out.  
  
“Are you staying to watch the parade?” another Fairy asked. Lucy was surrounded by happy, smiling strangers.  
  
“I was just going to get a drink,” she said, and escaped as gracefully as possible from that conversation.  
  
“Try the peach cider! Mira got it in specially for the festival!” one of them called after her, as she left.  
  
“Lemonade, please,” Lucy said to the waitress, and reconsidered. “Actually, can I try the cider?” She handed over the money and, since all the stools were already taken, leant against the bar while she waited.  
  
“Hello there!”  
  
Lucy looked around, and then down. Fairy Tail's tiny master grinned up at her. “Nice to see you!”  
  
“Hi,” Lucy said, surprised and a little wary. “It looks like a good festival. There's a lot of people here already.” The waitress passed her a glass of cider and hurried off to another customer. Lucy inspected the drink carefully.  
  
“When you're old, it's pleasant to come and watch the young people enjoy themselves,” Makarov said.  
  
“You've got an awful lot of young people,” Lucy said. The oldest Fairies were those two guys that everyone seemed to call 'the veterans', and they looked about thirty-five. Everyone else was around Lucy's age. Of course, in Phantom Lucy had mostly stuck with the people her own age, but most of the mages were in their thirties. “Why is that? I know Erza joined eight years ago, and Gray was already here by then. Isn't an average age under eighteen a sign of a dark guild? Forget under eighteen, you take kids under ten?”  
  
“That's one way dark guilds operate, all right,” Makarov agreed. “They find lonely children, bring them in and then convince them that all their value lies in what they can do for the guild. Some of the worst monsters in history started out as sad kids, looking for approval.” His face darkened. “I can't stand people who exploit children like that.”  
  
“So...” Lucy said, “what you do is... collect sad children and then convince them all their value lies in friendship and yelling?”  
  
“That's right!” Makarov said cheerfully. “Look out for your friends, and never let anyone stop you doing what you think is right! That's the Fairy Tail way!” The tiny demented optimist (Mage Saint, she reminded herself) beamed up at her. “Besides, our youngest now is fifteen. That's much better!”  
  
“Uh... huh,” Lucy said.  
  
“Well, I'm off to mingle,” Makarov said. “It's a busy life being a guild master. Lots of people to schmooze!” He waved. “See you around!” And then he vanished into the crowd.  
  
It wasn't hard to see where the Fairies got their weirdness from.  
  
The hall filled in even more, until people were packed elbow-to-elbow and Lucy couldn't have moved away from the bar if she'd wanted to. The volume rose until the chatter and laughter blurred into a wordless roar. Lucy sipped her cider and found, to her surprise, that it was actually quite nice.  
  
The contest started, with a Fairy in a suit bounding out onto the stage. “Citizens of Magnolia!” he shouted. “Citizens of everywhere else! Citizens of the underworld – don't forget to go back there when the contest's over, okay?”  
  
The audience laughed.  
  
“And now, what you've all been waiting for! The beauties of Fairy Tail will perform on this stage! Welcome to the Miss Fairy Tail competition!”  
  
Lucy was pretty sure she would have cleaned up at any Phantom Lord beauty contest. Fairy Tail had a lot more young cute women, though. She pursed her lips. Maybe Master Makarov was just a pervert.  
  
“The announcer will be me, the sand mage Max Alors!”  
  
“That guy leapt at getting that job,” Gray said. Lucy squawked and whirled around. Gray was leaning on the staff side of the bar, oblivious to the waitresses glaring at him. “Hey. Surprised to see you here.”  
  
“Erza invited us, and Loke wanted to watch the parade,” Lucy said immediately, defensively. When Gray blinked, she realised he wasn't questioning her.  
  
“Okay,” he said. Lucy was relieved that Max had already moved onto the competitors.  
  
“Our first contestant, Fairy Tail's champion drinker, Cana Alberona!”  
  
It was that friend of Loke's, the drunk one. She fanned out a deck of cards with an easy flick of her wrist, and tossed them into the air. The falling cards whirled around her like a tornado. When they cleared, she was... wearing a bikini?  
  
Oh. It was _that_ kind of contest. Yep. Master Makarov was definitely a pervert. Cana grinned, winked at the crowd and left the stage to claps and cheers.  
  
“Our second contestant, the cute and clever Fairy, Levy McGarden!”  
  
Levy tripped out onto the stage, arms out, and spun. Solid-script spells materialised all around her and burst into showers of flower petals, snowflakes and clouds of butterflies. The other two guys from Team Shadow Gear whooped and cheered.  
  
The third contestant, Bisca Mulan – the sexy gunslinger from the West, according to Max – showed off by producing a dozen targets and hitting every bullseye within a few seconds. One guy in a poncho cheered until he ran out of breath.  
  
“After the crowd appeal round is the challenge round,” Gray said. “They pick tasks out of a hat. Last year Erza had to eat fifteen doughnuts while standing on her head and Laki Olietta had to neuter a cat. That's why she's not competing this year.”  
  
“...what?” said Lucy.  
  
“And after the challenge round, there's the bomb-defusion round,” Gray said.  
  
“Hey, y-you're definitely messing with me now, right?” Lucy said.  
  
“And now, our fourth contestant!” Max spread his arms out wide and looked around, waiting for Erza or Mirajane to appear. There was silence. A few people looked up at the ceiling as if they expected Erza to descend on a rope.  
  
“The fourth contestant,” someone said. Lucy looked back as a woman in a short green dress strode out onto the stage. “If you want to find the most beautiful, then it can only be me. If you want to find the most fairy-like, then it can only be me! That's right – the winner can only be me, Evergreen! The rest is boring, so we'll end the contest here!”  
  
“Isn't that a little overconfident?” Lucy said.  
  
“This is bad,” Gray said. “That's Evergreen. If she's here, Laxus is probably here too.”  
  
“That's really bad, right?” Lucy's voice went a little squeaky. “That's really bad!”  
  
“He's been in a worse mood than usual lately. Some idiot cracked a joke about him having a crush on Mystogan during the trial,” Gray said.  
  
“That was me!” Lucy hissed back.  
  
Gray immediately grabbed her by the shirt and hauled her bodily over the bar. Lucy tumbled to the floor on the other side. “Stay down there, then!”  
  
“Evergreen, what are you doing here?” Makarov demanded.  
  
“I'm just making the contest a little more interesting!” she sang. The backdrop turned to dust.  
  
“Statues?” Lucy whispered, before she realised what she was looking at. Bisca had been caught halfway through reloading her guns. Levy had been turning towards the steps. Cana was frozen with a bottle raised to her lips. They'd all been turned to stone.  
  
There was a shocked outcry from the audience. Gray swore. Max Alors nearly fell over. Evergreen smiled.  
  
“This is terrible!” Max shouted. “Everybody, out!” The civilians fled the room in a panicked mass.  
  
“Evergreen!” Makarov barked. “Are you trying to ruin the festival? Turn them back!”  
  
“Shouldn't a festival have a main event?” Evergreen asked. She stepped back calmly as a bolt of lightning crashed into the stage beside her. The civilians shouted and ducked. The lightning reshaped itself into people. Lucy blinked furiously to clear the afterimages out of her eyes. A green-haired guy wearing an actual cravat, a guy in a metal visor, and-  
  
“Hey, idiots!” Laxus shouted. “The real fun starts here!”  
  
Lucy crouched low behind the counter. “Who are they?”  
  
“Freed and Bickslow!” Gray said. “The Thunder God Tribe. They're, like -”  
  
“Laxus's official fanclub?” Lucy guessed.  
  
“Yeah, basically!” He vaulted over the bar.  
  
“Laxus!” Makarov shouted. “What are you doing?”  
  
“I want to play a game, old man,” Laxus drawled. Lucy got to her knees and peeked over the top of the bar. Makarov was too short for her to be able to see him, but his angry voice rang off the walls.  
  
“Don't be an idiot! You've interrupted the contest and we still need to get ready for the Fantasia!”  
  
“The Fantasia's late at night. If we wrap this up quick, people might still get to see it.”  
  
“Laxus, this is going too far! Release them, now!”  
  
“Who's going to make me? Erza and Acting Master Mirajane?” His grin widened. “Haven't you been wondering where they are?” He pointed. “There you go!”  
  
Everyone whipped around. Erza and Mirajane had finally arrived. They stood silently by the door, just inside the hall. Blocking off any escape. A prickle ran down Lucy's spine. She gripped her keys tight.  
  
“Erza! Mira!” Makarov said. “What's the matter?”  
  
The guy in the helmet cackled. “Come on, babies! Let everyone take a look!”  
  
Erza and Mirajane both came forward, moving in lockstep. Their faces were totally blank, scrubbed clean of any trace of feeling.  
  
Gray cursed again. “Bickslow! You bastard!”  
  
“What's he done?” Lucy hissed. Was there a faint green glow in their eyes?  
  
“He's taken control of their souls,” Gray said.  
  
Lucy clapped both hands over her mouth. “Oh my God! Erza!”  
  
Makarov was white with fury. “There are things that can't be played off as a joke, Laxus!”  
  
“Who's joking?” He draped an arm casually around Cana's petrified shoulders. “These girls are my hostages. Those two are my weapons. Neat, huh?” His grin vanished. “Tell them the rules.”  
  
“The time limit is three hours,” Evergreen said. “After that... well, these poor girls-” Her voice shook with suppressed laughter. “-will be turned to dust, along with anyone else I've captured.”  
  
“The battlefield is the whole of Magnolia,” said the last one, who must be Freed. “There is no way to escape. Not for Fairies, not for civilians, not for anybody. The whole town is encircled by my runes. Should anyone attempt to leave, the results will be... unfortunate.”  
  
“If anyone tries to fuck around, these girls get it,” Laxus said. “One by one. Cana volunteered to go first, right, Cana?”  
  
“We've got six people. You've got nearly a hundred,” Bickslow said. “You've definitely got an advantage! It's totally unfair!” A gang of tiny floating dolls popped out from behind him and chorused “Unfair, unfair!” What a freak. “And you're gonna have to kick our asses if you want Erza and Mira back to their own sweet selves!”  
  
“It's just a game,” Freed said.  
  
“It's a game to see who's strongest in Fairy Tail!” said Bickslow.  
  
“A game? Speak for yourselves,” Evergreen said, with a flick of her fan.  
  
“The rules are simple! Whoever takes out the most other Fairies wins!” said Laxus. “And we intend to win!” He raised his voice to a shout. “The Fighting Festival starts now!”  
  
“Don't mess around, Laxus!” Makarov roared, and transformed. He grew until the top of his head brushed the ceiling and his shoulders were as wide as a transcontinental cargo hauler. Lucy squeaked. This was the little old man's magic?  
  
Laxus just grinned. “Gramps, calm down. Enjoy the show!” He conjured a dazzling light. When it had cleared, Laxus, his cronies, and Erza and Mira had all disappeared.  
  
Makarov shrank back to normal with a curse. “Laxus... this isn't something I can forgive!”  
  
“Those bastards!” Elfman yelled. “I'll make them let Mira go!” He raced out of the door, followed by a tide of furious Fairies.  
  
“Catch Laxus!”  
  
“Give him a beating!”  
  
“How dare they look down on us?”  
  
Makarov stormed towards the door, yelling. “Those cocky brats! God, I'll stop their little game right here!” Then he smacked into an invisible wall.  
  
Gray was right behind him. “What are you doing, old man?” The Fairies were so disrespectful to their guild master, Lucy didn't even know.  
  
“I can't move forward! There's an invisible wall!”  
  
“This isn't the time to screw around! There's no invisible wall!” They were so disrespectful to their guild master. If this was Phantom, Gray would be hanging from the rafters by his ankles right now. Gray grabbed Makarov by the ears and tried to haul him through. There was grunting and squealing. It sounded like an angry farmyard.  
  
The Fairies who'd left gathered back around the door.  
  
“What's going on?”  
  
“Can't the master get out?”  
  
Glyphs formed in the air inside the archway.  
  
“It's a restriction spell of Freed's!” Gray read it out. “Nobody over the age of eighty, or stone statues, may leave!” They looked at each other in consternation.  
  
“Who've you got that's good at breaking spells?” Lucy asked.  
  
“Levy and Kage,” Gray said promptly. “But Team Megadeath left town on a mission a few days ago, and Levy-” And Levy was a statue. Was that planned, or just bad luck? “They were ahead of us on that one,” Gray said. “Then leave it to me!” He marched out, past Makarov.  
  
“Gray!” Makarov yelled.  
  
Gray wheeled around. “I won't forgive him, even if he is your grandson! I'll kill him for this!” He ran off. Makarov was left alone, leaning his forehead against the barrier.  
  
Lucy sat on the bar and drank her cider. One hand still gripped her keyring. Should she help? She wasn't a member of Fairy Tail. It was a completely internal conflict. Laxus was just throwing a tantrum and trying to punch everybody. And he had to be bluffing about destroying the stone girls, because even Fairies weren't mad enough to think that publically murdering three people was a smart idea.  
  
She didn't think they'd appreciate it if she butted in. What help would she be, anyway? Erza could beat Mage Saints and then survive Etherion; Lucy doubted there was anyone in the guild who could take her.  
  
More messages started to appear on the board. Notifications of battles, and one big counter at the top.

Team Laxus, combatants remaining: 6  
  
Team Fairy Tail, combatants remaining: 79

* * *

Jet and Droy were hurrying through Magnolia's tangle of back streets when Droy caught movement out of the corner of his eye. “Hey!”  
  
“It's only Alzack,” Jet said. “Hey, Alzack! Seen anyone?”  
  
“Not around here,” Alzack said shortly, and hurried on. Jet and Droy went the opposite way.  
  
“I can't believe they ruined the contest,” Jet said, mostly under his breath. “Levy would definitely have won!”  
  
“Yeah!” Droy agreed. “Those flowers – man, so cute!”  
  
“Droy! Look out!” Jet yelled. Droy whirled around.  
  
In the street behind them, a swirl of runes came together and coalesced into Freed. One of his hands rested lightly on the hilt of his sword.  
  
“Freed!” Jet shouted. “Turn Levy back to normal!”  
  
Droy yanked a ball of seeds from his bandolier and flung it at Freed. “Knuckle Plant!” Freed drew his sword and sliced through the vines. Pieces of thick stem rained to the ground. Droy yelled with shock. Freed closed the distance between them in a blur and slammed the pommel of his sword into the side of Droy's head. Droy hit the ground.  
  
“Droy!” Jet shouted. “Damn you! Falcon Heavenward!” He shot towards Freed.  
  
Freed sliced his sword through the air. “Dark Ecriture: Wings!” He leapt into the air, and Jet flashed past underneath him. Freed dropped back to the ground and spun. Jet's momentum was too great; before he could skid to a stop and turn, Freed's blade slashed across the backs of his legs. Blood splattered the paving stones. Jet howled and went sprawling on the ground. “You bastard!” He tried to push himself up, but his legs couldn't support his weight. “You bastard- we won't forgive you for this!”  
  
Freed stepped away from him. “Your anger is meaningless. You lack the strength to back it up,” he said shortly. “Enemy combatants remaining: 77.” He moved on.

* * *

“Hey! Fairy Tail!” Max looked around. One of the townspeople sitting outside the café was waving at him. “We heard there'd been some sort of ruckus over at the guild. What are you lot playing at?”  
  
“You better not ruin the festival now,” a woman warned him, jokingly. “I'd have to come over there and teach you kids a lesson!”  
  
Max raised both hands defensively. “We're not ruining anything! Everything is fine! Go inside!”  
  
That wasn't reassuring.  
  
“What do you mean, go inside?”  
  
“Hey!” the first man yelled again. “Hey! Titania!” He pointed at Max. “Is this kid causing trouble?”  
  
Max whirled around. Erza was striding towards him. “Oh, crap!” He dropped down, both hands to the ground. “Sand Blast!” The earth ruptured. Max tore sand from the ground and flung it all at Erza.  
  
The townspeople at the cafe threw up their arms to cover their eyes and shouted in outrage. “Oi! What do you think you're doing?”  
  
“Erza, kick his ass!”  
  
The blast should have thrown Erza flat and scoured layers from every inch of exposed skin. She just drew a double-bladed battle-axe from her armoury, pivoted lightly on one foot as the storm swept down on her, and cut it into pieces.  
  
Max cursed and turned to run. Erza was faster. The flat of her battle-axe caught him in the side and flung him to the ground.  
  
“Augh! Erza, stop!”  
  
She spun her broadaxe and slammed the foot of the shaft into his head. He went limp.  
  
The townspeople stared. Sand coated their food and clothes and settled grittily into their hair.  
  
“Titania!” one of them shouted. “What's the meaning of this? That was going too far!”  
  
Erza turned around.Her face stretched into a smile. Her eyes stayed empty. “I apologise for the inconvenience. We are experiencing some disciplinary problems. There is no reason to be alarmed.”  
  
Mugs shattered on the floor and tables were flung over as the citizens fled.

* * *

“Demon Blast!”  
  
The townspeople peering out the little window winced and turned away, as the purple flash of Mirajane's magic lit up the walls of the basement. There was a shriek, abruptly cut off.  
  
“Well, not-Demon Mirajane was nice while it lasted,” one of them said.

* * *

The counter ticked down slowly, one by one. After about an hour, when the number of fighters on Makarov's side had dropped to 31, Laxus reappeared.  
  
“Good show, huh?”  
  
Lucy ducked hurriedly behind a pillar. Laxus didn't seem to have noticed her. His attention was fixed on Makarov.  
  
“Laxus... damn you,” Makarov said.  
  
“How does it feel, watching your allies – wait, you call them the brats, don't you? What's it like, watching your brats get hammered into the dirt?” Laxus laughed. His thought projection flickered at the edges. “Since Erza and Acting Master Mirajane are under Bickslow's control, and Natsu landed himself in prison, there's nobody out there powerful enough to stop the Thunder God Tribe.”  
  
'Acting Master Mirajane'? Makarov picked up on that, too. “Is that what this is about? You're behaving like a child!”  
  
Laxus's calm fractured. “Do you expect me to tolerate that sort of disrespect? She's not stronger than me!” Makarov tried to say something, but Laxus shouted over him. “I won't accept being laughed at! They need to learn that none of them can beat me!”  
  
“There's more to earning respect than just being the strongest, Laxus!”  
  
“How would you know? You turned the guild into a joke! The Council's been inches from disbanding us for years! Weekly Sorcerer has a column on which Fairy made the worst fool of themselves every week, and you just laugh it off! You let them all act like children!”  
  
Laxus was actually making some valid points.  
  
“You spoiled them, and if I have to beat that out of them then I will!”  
  
Laxus had now ceased to make valid points.  
  
“They're Fairy Tail mages! You can't just batter them into doing as you say!”  
  
Laxus laughed. “Oh? Who exactly do you think is going to stop me?”  
  
Makarov looked up at the board for a few long seconds. “Gray is fighting Bickslow. If he wins, that'll free Erza and Mirajane.”  
  
Laxus laughed. “You're pinning your hopes on that stripper?”

* * *

From the corner of his eye, Gray saw movement in a shop window as he raced past. He skidded to a stop. What was that? Most of Magnolia's citizens had realised that the Fairies were up to something and gone home early. (It wasn't like they weren't used to this. The collective noun for Fairy Tail mages was 'a brawl'.)  
  
Gray went into the shop and headed down the aisle, scanning from side to side. “Who's there?”  
  
“Gray!” Bickslow said from behind him, in a scandalised tone. “This is a shop for ladies! Get out!”  
  
Gray whirled around. “Bickslow! Where's Laxus?”  
  
“He's not here! Because this is a shop for _ladies_! Get out, you filthy boy!”  
  
“Filthy, filthy boy!” Bickslow's dolls sang, and shot energy bolts at him. Gray grabbed the rail of a lingerie rack and somersaulted over it.  
  
“If this is a shop for ladies, what are you doing in here?”  
  
Bickslow snatched a scarf from a pile of accessories and draped it over his head like long hair. “I happen to think I make a very pretty lady! Babies! Line formation!”  
  
The dolls chirruped, formed themselves into a tower, and fired off a straight beam of energy. Gray rolled aside. Behind him, a display stand was sliced in half from top to bottom and fell apart. Handbags scattered everywhere.  
  
“Ooh, not bad for a kid, Gray!” Bickslow shouted. “Next up, victory formation!” There was no response. Bickslow looked around. “Babies, what's wrong? ...Babies!”  
  
All his dolls were on the floor, frozen into solid chunks of ice. Gray attacked again before Bickslow could respond. He vaulted back over the lingerie rack and drove a boot into Bickslow's chest. Bickslow was knocked flat on his back.  
  
“Ice-Make: Hammer!” Gray brought the hammer down, ready to smash Bickslow into chunky salsa.  
  
Bickslow threw up his hands. “X Formation!”  
  
Four scantily-clad mannequins blocked the hammer from falling.  
  
“What?” Gray said. The mannequins straightened up, flinging the hammer aside.  
  
“My Seithr magic lets me implant souls into dolls. You can freeze their bodies, but you can't touch their souls! I can just move them into new bodies!”  
  
“Then I'll just freeze you instead!” Gray shouted. “Ice-Make: Lance!” The mannequins intercepted the attack.  
  
“Hahaha! You'll have to catch me first!” Bickslow yelled, and ran away.  
  
“Ice-Make: Saucer!” Gray flung a sharp-edged disc of ice at Bickslow. He dodged aside into a display and ran again, cackling. There was a bra snagged on his visor. He burst out of the door and back onto the street.  
  
“Hey! Get back here!” Gray roared, and raced after him. Bickslow ran like a frog, limbs flailing everywhere. A few people looking out of their windows laughed. Did they not realise the seriousness of the situation?  
  
Three of the mannequins were on his tail, shooting energy bolts at him. Gray cursed and dropped, both palms flat to the ground. “Ice-Make: Floor!” A thick film of ice spread over the street.  
  
Bickslow went down, skidding and spinning. “Ooops! Whee!”  
  
The other two mannequins swooped out of hiding. Crap, Gray had forgotten about those two! The mannequins surrounded him and opened fire. “Ice-Make: Igloo!” A dome of ice materialised around Gray. The energy bolts battered against it. He was pinned down.  
  
Not for long! “Ice-Make: Shrapnel!” His shield was transformed instantly into a weapon. The igloo exploded into shards of ice which tore through the mannequins.  
  
Bickslow yelled. “Babies!”  
  
Gray leapt up, and leapt again, both boots landing squarely on one of the mannequins' shoulders, and threw himself clear. Beyond the sheet of ice, he spun around, already preparing another spell.  
  
“Ice-Make-”  
  
“Gray!” A voice interrupted. “How lovely to see you!”  
  
Gray looked up into Evergreen's eyes, and was instantly turned into stone. Evergreen straightened her glasses. “Evergreen, thirteen,” she said. “Bickslow... oh, dear. Eight.”  
  
“Oi!” Bickslow said. “I was fighting that guy! You stole my fight!”  
  
“Oi, oi, oi!” the dolls chorused.  
  
Evergreen raised an eyebrow. “Oh, were you trying to fight? That's so sad! Imagine being held up for so long by one little middle-ranker!”  
  
“Babies, do you hear how she's talking about your papa?” Bickslow appealed to his dolls. “Get her!”  
  
Evergreen's wings flapped. “Your little dolls would have to catch me first!” She shot into the sky and away.

* * *

Laxus threw his head back and roared with laughter. “See! What did I tell you? That guy was no match!”  
  
Gray'd been fighting Bickslow, and then suddenly gone down to Evergreen? Lucy could see some dirty tactics there. The number of Fairies surviving had ticked down again, to 26.  
  
“All right. That's enough,” Makarov said. His head drooped. “I surrender. So, please, stop this now.”  
  
“That's no good,” Laxus said, with a thin, mad smile. “Fairy Tail's greatest master, accepting his pathetic defeat that easily? No... if you want to give up, you do it after handing the title of master over to me.”  
  
Makarov gasped. “You... so that's what you were after!”  
  
“Better think it over well, old man,” Laxus sneered. “You've got an hour and a half until Ever's prisoners crumble to dust.”  
  
Makarov looked past Laxus, at the three stone statues on the stage, and hissed between his teeth. Lucy had to agree there. Laxus definitely sounded crazy enough to kill three people in public and not care about the consequences.  
  
“If you want to put an end to this, all you have to do is take the guild's megaphone and announce, so the whole town can hear, that you hand over the mastery to me. I'd give it some thought if I were you. Which do you value more – your own position, or the lives of your brats?” He disappeared there, to make sure he got the last word.  
  
Lucy leant against the pillar for a moment, eyes closed. It wasn't hearing Laxus's words that had shocked her. She had heard all that before. He wanted to turn Fairy Tail into Phantom Lord.  
  
What had shocked her was that she cared. The Fairies were all mad, and she knew they couldn't last. Someday the Council or their own recklessness would catch up with them.  
  
Lucy just didn't want someday to be any day soon.  
  
She stepped out from behind the pillar. Makarov looked up, startled. He'd obviously forgotten she was there. Lucy folded her arms tightly across her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Laxus doesn't seem like he'd be all that great a master,” she said.  
  
“No, he wouldn't,” Makarov agreed. Lucy's eyes widened. “To be honest, I have been thinking about retiring. But I can't entrust the guild to Laxus. He's too lacking in principles and compassion to take up that responsibility.”  
  
Principles? Compassion?  
  
“I don't like to think of what would happen if Laxus took over,” Makarov said, with a sigh. “I don't know if the guild would survive.”  
  
“Probably not,” Lucy agreed.  
  
“Erza and Gray might be expelled,” Makarov added, “and that would be terrible. They've both been here since they were children. I try to make my guild a home for my mages, but if Laxus was in charge-” He trailed off.  
  
Lucy looked at him. Suspicion dawned.  
  
“If only there was someone else who could help,” Makarov said sadly, looking up to heaven.  
  
“You've made your point!” Lucy said. “I'm not that good, okay? It's not like I'm going to go challenge Laxus to single combat.” She scuffed the toe of one shoe across the ground. She really didn't want to run into Laxus; she couldn't take him and apparently he really couldn't take a joke. And she wouldn't stand a chance against Erza. There would have to be something she could do, right?  
  
“Since there's nothing I can do,” Makarov said, and stopped. One of his hands was pressed flat against the wall. He looked exhausted, wrung-out, like he'd aged twenty years in the last two hours.  
  
“I'll do my best,” Lucy said. Makarov didn't answer. She slid out past him and walked away down the street. Makarov was left alone, leaning his forehead against the barrier.


	24. How Laxus Continued To Be A Terrible Person

Lucy walked quietly through the streets of Magnolia, watching out for trouble. Musca flew on ahead. The little fly spirit's vision was overlaid on hers. Lucy didn't want to get jumped if there was an option to snipe somebody with Caelum from a distance. She came to a crossroads and stood for a moment, looking down both streets, before she decided to let Musca check them out first. Lucy wasn't even that well-armed! She didn't have her whip or her knuckleduster, just her keys, and no Juvia or Gajeel or Ryos to call for help. She'd figured a festival would be safe, and it would be rude to the Fairies if she walked in there all piled up with weaponry.  
  
Augh! Why did she keep getting attacked wherever she least expected it? Cafes, hotels, festivals - maybe in future Lucy should just be more paranoid about having fun. "A ball? Evening dress? I will bring my smartest tank!"  
  
Actually, every single one of those incidents had been, directly or indirectly, because of a Fairy Tail mage. Yeah. Lucy knew who to blame there.  
  
The street Musca was checking was clear. All the doors were locked, shutters closed, curtains drawn across. Totally empty and safe -  
  
A shadow passed over Musca. Lucy looked up just in time to see a blur of red hair and black armour.  
  
"Moon Flash!"  
  
Lucy's eyes bugged out of her head, and then she shrieked and dived out of the way. Erza's swords flashed behind her. That could have cut her in half! She leapt back to her feet and ran screaming. Erza! Of all the people out there, why did she have to run into _Erza_? She had the worst luck!  
  
"Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum!" She grabbed Caelum out of the air as the chisel materialised. Erza was close behind her. "Erza! Stop it!" Erza didn't stop. What a stupid idea, thinking that would work!  
  
All the shops were locked and empty. Lucy flung Caelum through the plate-glass window of a clothes store. The glass shattered and came crashing down. Lucy leapt through the broken window. "Gate of the Chisel, close!" Caelum vanished back to the stellar spirit world. She tore through the shop. As she vaulted over the till, she heard behind her glass crunching under Erza's boots. "Gate of the Chisel, open!" Caelum's weight dropped back into her hands. Lucy barged into the door behind the till shoulder-first, slamming it back into the wall, and dashed through the storeroom. Her heart was hammering. The back door was deadbolted. She dropped Caelum and yanked at the bolt. In the shiny metal, she saw a dark reflection behind her. She dropped. Erza's sword bit deep into the door above her head. Erza yanked her blade free. Lucy screamed. Caelum fired. The blast of green energy hit Erza right under the breastbone and threw her back across the storeroom. She smashed into a clothing rack and went down in a tangle of dresses and coathangers.  
  
Lucy goggled. "Nice job, Caelum!" She hadn't even noticed it switch to Cannon Form! She dived through the door and slammed it shut behind her.  
  
It only took Erza a few seconds to claw free of the pile and race back across the room, and then she was throwing the back door open. She leapt down into the narrow side street and looked around. Nobody was visible, but the street was long, and it would have been difficult to run to either end in time to get out of sight. There was a dumpster opposite the back door. Erza went to investigate, her sword held high and ready to strike.  
  
Lucy was actually hanging over the doorway, dangling by both arms from Caelum in Flight Form. As Erza moved forward, she dropped back to the ground and dived back through the door. Erza spun around. Lucy slammed the door behind her, threw the bolt across, and hurried back towards the front of the shop. "Gate of the Chisel, close! Gate of the Chisel, open!" Caelum materialised by her side. Lucy had reached the staff door when she heard a crash behind her. She looked back just in time to see Erza rip another chunk out of the door with an axe. She was hacking the door away from the bolt.  
  
"You have _got_ to be shitting me," Lucy said, faintly, and ran again. She burst out of the shop and tore down the street. At the end of the street, she burst into a square. It looked like a market plaza. There was a small octagonal building in the middle, with two storeys but only open space and arches on the ground floor. There was nowhere to hide there.  
  
There were brightly-coloured stalls set out, though. The nearest was strung with bunting and piled high with jars of homemade jam. Lucy scrambled behind it and ducked under the counter. Her heart was still pounding, her legs shook and her throat hurt from gasping for breath. Through a crack in the boards at the front, she saw Erza come into the square. Lucy shuddered reflexively. It was like looking at her mother's memorial statue, the angel carved in the image of Layla Heartfilia. Lucy hadn't been allowed to see her mother after she died, but she imagined that was what it would be like; the familiar face as blank and lifeless as a doll's.  
  
Erza scanned the square, and then shut her eyes and turned slowly on the spot. She opened her eyes. She drew a longsword from her armoury, and walked confidently to the stall Lucy was hiding behind.  
  
What? How did she know?!  
  
Lucy dropped flat just in time. Erza drove her sword clear through the front of the stall. It burst through the wood only a few inches from Lucy's side. Lucy screamed.  
  
"Caelum! Flight Form!"  
  
Caelum switched shape. Lucy grabbed its ring and Caelum dragged her away - literally dragged her away over the cobblestones - an instant before Erza yanked on the hilt of her sword and sent the whole stall flying. Glass jars showered down. Lucy shrieked again and scrabbled to get to her feet. "Erza, stop it!"  
  
The answer was a lance flung into the wall behind her. Lucy screamed. She couldn't stop Erza by talking to her!  
  
She took off running again, zigging and zagging, but heading for the building in the middle of the square. It looked like a place for market officials to supervise from. The windows were open, the curtains flapping in the breeze. With all the shops and houses around locked up tight, that must mean it was empty.  
  
Lucy hoped nobody would miss it.  
  
She raced up the steps and through the building. "Caelum, Cannon Form!" Caelum shifted shape. Lucy clutched the cannon tight to her chest. Erza was close on her heels. Just outside the building, she spun around. Erza was so close behind her!  
  
"Is this why Sho died?" Lucy screamed. "So you could try killing all your other friends as well?" Erza faltered. Only for a second, but that was long enough. The cannon had started to charge as soon as Lucy ordered it to switch forms. "Caelum, fire!"  
  
The cannon let loose a blast of green light. Erza dropped low to avoid it. Lucy hadn't been aiming for Erza anyway. The blast scythed through the delicate columns holding up the second floor and, with a roar, the whole building collapsed. A ton of timber and masonry fell on top of Erza's head.  
  
That ought to slow her down for a minute! "Gate of the Chisel, close!" Lucy dropped Caelum - it shimmered out of existence before it hit the ground - spun on her heel and ran. She tore through the streets until she was certain Erza wasn't behind her, and then dived behind a stack of trashcans and waited. Her heart was hammering against her ribs. A fly buzzed around her head. Lucy raised a hand to swat it, before she saw her own face looming in front of her and realised it was Musca. "Oops, sorry!" She'd completely forgotten the fly spirit's gate was still open. Musca perched on the top of the bins, scanning the street. Lucy craned her neck up and watched the sky. After a minute, they saw Erza swoop past overhead. Lucy drew back further into the shadow of the trashcans. Erza wheeled above them for a few moments, and then her wings snapped down and she shot off towards the southeast. Lucy let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding and let her head fall forwards. "Ugh..."  
  
That had been terrifying.  
  
She shouldn't have said that about Sho. She was an awful person.  
  
But, more importantly, she wasn't a dead person.  
  
"Musca, let's keep looking." The fly spirit buzzed away again. Lucy stayed crouched for a second, thinking. In the fights reported on the scoreboard, most of the Fairies had been fighting alone. There'd been a few pairs - Jet and Droy versus Freed, Krov and Niggy versus Mirajane - but it was mostly single combat. So they'd all split up and gone running around alone.  
  
No wonder they'd got their asses kicked.  
  
Musca had heard something. Faint conversation was drifting from one house's upstairs window. "Go see what that is," Lucy suggested. Musca buzzed up, squeezed between the closed shutters and perched on the sill.  
  
It was an abandoned house. The furniture was all covered in dust sheets, and the cobwebs hanging in the corners were thick with dust. A girl was sitting on the edge of the bed, while a woman in old-fashioned clothes - a long skirt, and a blouse with a high lacy collar - gave her an impromptu lecture. "-ain't any such thing as a good man, honey, take it from me; all there is is bad men what ain't been said no to yet." Her voice sounded strange, like it was coming out of the walls. The pessimistic woman was new, but Lucy knew the round-faced girl in the kitty hat was a Fairy Tail mage.  
  
She pushed herself up, stretched and hurried along the edge of the street until she was level with the abandoned house. When she had to cross the road, she looked both ways, then overhead, and then skittered across in a hurry and dived into the abandoned house's porch.  
  
There was a big skull and crossbones painted on the door. Lucy blinked at it and then knocked, carefully, not touching the area covered by the painting. Upstairs, the girl in the kitty hat lifted her head.  
  
"I got it," said the pessimistic woman. The door swung open. Lucy jerked her hand back with a yelp.  
  
"Aramina," the girl said reproachfully. She climbed to her feet and headed for the door. "Please don't come in!" she called, as she descended the steps. "Don't cross the threshold!"  
  
The entrance hall was exactly as dusty and dark and cobwebbed as the rest of the house. There were clear prints in the dust on the floor where the girl had come in and padded upstairs. The only thing that would have got Lucy in there would have been Erza showing up again.  
  
"I'm Lucy Ashley," Lucy said.  
  
"Chico C. Hammitt," the girl said, and added politely. "It's nice to meet you." Two translucent creatures vaguely like cartoon ghosts drifted around her shoulders.  
  
"Uh, okay, same," Lucy said. "I know I'm not in the guild, but Makarov drafted me. Laxus's got an agenda beyond wrecking the festival. He's trying to force Makarov to step down and declare him the next master."  
  
Chico's eyes widened. She gripped the edge of the door tight.  
  
"Our side was down to twenty-six people the last time I saw the scoreboard," Lucy said. "I think we're going to have to work together if we want to beat Laxus and his fan club."  
  
Chico thought, and looked up. "I'm not very good at fighting."  
  
"Me neither," Lucy said. "My plan is to sneak up on people and hit them over the head from behind. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to run away."  
  
"Okay," Chico said, and came out, closing the door behind her. As it clicked shut, the woman upstairs twisted around. Her outline distorted. She wound herself back down through the cracks in the floorboards.  
  
"Augh!" Lucy said. "That woman you were talking to just crawled into the floor!"  
  
"Oh. Yeah. She does that," Chico said vaguely. "They put her under the floorboards. I think she's still there."  
  
Lucy was too busy trying to scrub that memory out of her brain to listen. Obviously Chico just enjoyed hanging around with creepy witch women. She lifted her arm up. Musca settled down on the back of her hand. "Do you know where any other Fairies are?" She peeked out around the corner of the porch.  
  
"I think Warren was near here," Chico said. "I think he was fighting Bickslow. He was shouting a lot. But he lost quite quickly. Before I could go and help." She thought for a moment. "I know he isn't dead."  
  
"Oh. Uh, good. That's... good," Lucy said. She peered up and down the street. "You heard him yelling? I can't see him."  
  
"He uses telepathy. So he might be... a way away?" Chico chewed absently on her fingernails. She had an odd, unpredictable speaking pace.  
  
"...telepathy?" Lucy said. She had an idea. "Do you know which way he was?"  
  
Chico thought, and pointed. They hurried that way, keeping to the edges of the street, with Musca scouting on ahead. After a few minutes, they found a dark-haired guy lying in the road by the curb.  
  
Musca landed on his face. The guy groaned and tried to swat the fly away.  
  
"You'd better not!" Lucy shouted. Musca zipped away in a hurry.  
  
"Ow," the guy rasped, as they reached him.  
  
"Hello, Warren," Chico said.  
  
Warren groaned, and pressed a hand to the side of his head. "That bastard Bickslow got me. His stupid dolls. I didn't even spot him."  
  
Lucy looked around. There was a cafe on the opposite side of the street.  
  
"One minute," she said and went over to it. The door was locked. The door was also mostly made out of glass panes. Lucy took a step back and pivoted, preparing to kick one in.  
  
Something wispy and insubstantial slid past her, and through the keyhole in the door. On the other side, its form curled up and out into something vaguely human. A smoky hand caught the doorhandle and twisted. The door came open.  
  
"Thank you," Chico said, drifting up behind her. It took Lucy a second to realise she was talking to the wispy thing.  
  
"Is that a sort of summoning?" Lucy asked.  
  
"A sort of summoning?" Chico said. "I suppose. I go around the city and I make friends and my friends help me out." She went inside and started to leisurely make a coffee. Lucy went back to Warren, grabbed him under the arms and hauled him inside, out of sight. Chico watched the kettle boil.  
  
"Laxus is trying to force Makarov to step down as guild master and let him have the job," Lucy explained shortly.  
  
"What?" This was more effective than coffee. Warren sat bolt upright. "He can't do that!"  
  
"Well, apparently nobody's told him that," Lucy said. "Can you help? There's probably about twenty people left. We need to join forces if we're going to beat the Thunder God Tribe."  
  
Warren frowned. "You're not in the guild, are you?"  
  
"Makarov drafted me," Lucy said hurriedly. "Plus, Laxus is a jerk and I really don't like him!" She went on quickly, before Warren could make any more objections. "You use telepathy, right? How many people can you reach?"  
  
"He's scared of heights," Chico volunteered, apropos of nothing.  
  
"...uh. What?" said Lucy.  
  
"One time he was on a date with a girl," Chico said. "And when they were walking over the bridge on Talauma Street everyone heard him yelling about how scared he was. Because the bridge is high up."  
  
"Okay," Lucy said.  
  
"Don't go around telling people that!" Warren said.  
  
Chico blinked a couple of times, and handed him the coffee.  
  
"How exact can you get?" Lucy said. "Can you reach the Fairies within range who aren't on Team Laxus?"  
  
"Can I reach-" Warren scoffed. "I can reach people on the other side of the town. I can read people's minds faster than they can think. I'm the best telepath in the guild-"  
  
"I thought you were the only telepath in the guild," Chico said. "Who else is there?"  
  
"Okay, but," Warren said, "even if there was another telepath in the guild then I would still be better than them."  
  
"That's great. Can you reach the Fairies within range who aren't on Team Laxus?" Lucy said.  
  
Warren took a deep glug of his coffee. "Yeah. I can do that."

* * *

"Hey! Everybody listen up! This is an emergency!"  
  
"Warren?" Droy said, looking up. He was limping down a street, half-dragging half-carrying Jet. He turned around.  
  
"Ow," said Jet.  
  
Halfway across town, Reedus Jonah, hiding out in an art store, shot a hunted look around the empty shop and clutched his sketchbook to his chest. "Warren?"  
  
"Warren!" Laki Olietta said. She spun around in the street, and came unexpectedly face-to-face with Elfman's snarling face. He'd been turned to stone as he burst out of the shattered remnants of a flower shop. "Yeek! Warren, you made me into a porcupine!" She rubbed the hair standing up on the back of her neck.  
  
There was a confused chorus of voices. Half of them were trying to figure out what Laki had just said.  
  
"Don't all talk at once!" Warren said.  
  
The Fairies all continued talking at once.  
  
"Reedus, how'd they get you out here?"  
  
"Macao and Wakaba dragged me," Reedus said miserably. "They wanted to go and find Mirajane."  
  
"Macao? Wakaba?" someone else called. There was no reply.  
  
"Guess they found her," someone said.  
  
"Mira caught me too," Happy lamented. "She tied me to a lamppost!"  
  
"Oh no! Where are you, Happy?"  
  
"Near the shop that sells the fish pasties," Happy said.  
  
"What's it called?"  
  
"... the shop that sells the fish pasties," Happy said.  
  
"Everyone shut up! This is important!" Warren shouted, momentarily drowning out the chatter. "You don't know what Laxus is up to! He's trying to make the old man step down!"

* * *

"Don't tell them you're getting this from me," Lucy said. "They probably wouldn't believe it."  
  
Chico was leaning against the door, looking out at the street. Lucy honestly wasn't sure if she was keeping watch or not.

* * *

"Laxus told the old man he'd only call the Thunder God Tribe off if Makarov retired and declared him the next master!" Warren said.  
  
The Fairies exploded into outrage.  
  
"So that's why he took the girls hostage!"  
  
"That son of a bitch!"  
  
"We'll destroy him for this!"

(Not quite all the Fairies were so outraged, though. An intent conversation was going on in the background.  
  
"Happy, what can you see?"  
  
"A lamp post," Happy said.  
  
"Are you near the canal?" someone else guessed.  
  
"How about you start yelling loudly, and we'll all listen and see if we can hear you?")

* * *

"Everyone's ready to go hunt for Laxus," Warren reported happily.  
  
"Well, tell them not to!" Lucy said.  
  
"What? But everyone's all fired up!"  
  
"It's more important to free Erza and Mira and the people turned into stone. We can't beat Laxus without them, and even if we did the Thunder God Tribe might just kill all the hostages in retaliation!"  
  
Warren's mouth fell open. "You think they'd do that?"  
  
"Laxus seemed crazy enough to order it," Lucy said. "He was freaking out about people not respecting him enough. I don't think he's making empty bluffs. If he told the Thunder God Tribe to start killing people, would they do it?"  
  
"Freed definitely would," said Warren.  
  
"Then our best shot is to free the hostages and the other S-rankers. Then even if we haven't beaten him, he's got nothing to hold over the master," Lucy said. She remembered belatedly that she hadn't seen Laxus come up in any fights. Was he saving his energy in case he had to fight Erza or Mira or the master? Well, that was just all the more reason not to go get in a fight with him. "So the people we really need to beat are Evergreen and Bickslow."  
  
Warren frowned but relayed that. After a minute he reported back, "They say they'll fight anyone."  
  
"Good," Lucy said. "Where is everyone? What can they do?" She thought for a second. "I don't suppose you've got a map?"  
  
"I can draw one," Chico said, apparently to the door. She pulled a Light Pen out of her hat, wandered back over to them and began to draw a map. Actually, she wasn't drawing a map so much as sketching the city from the air. It looked almost the same, but took twice as long.  
  
"Everybody split up?" Lucy asked, really just to clarify what she'd already worked out.  
  
"Well, we figured we'd find the Thunder God Tribe quicker that way," Warren said.  
  
"...that part did work well, you found them," said Lucy. Obviously, Laxus wasn't the only Fairy with a total disregard for consequences. "But then everyone's getting their ass kicked. There's more of us than there are of them, why can't we use that? Try to get everyone into groups of four or so."  
  
"Ganging up on people? That doesn't sound very fair," Warren said. Maybe Fairies were just incurably honourable.  
  
"It's not fair to steal the other team's best players, either! They started it," Lucy said.  
  
Warren relayed that, a faint crease between his eyebrows.

* * *

"Okay!"  
  
"Sounds good to us!"  
  
"We'll rescue the hostages, and then we'll kick Laxus's ass!"  
  
"Bickslow's dolls jumped me from behind. I'm ready for a rematch," Alzack said. Even through the telepathic link, he sounded raw and exhausted.  
  
"Does anyone actually know where Bickslow and Evergreen are?" Vijeeter asked.  
  
There was a brief pause as all the Fairies looked around. Then they said "No." There was another brief silence, broken by Tono Rabbits reporting "I found Happy!"  
  
"Please untie me, I'm really hungry," Happy said.  
  
"Evergreen got Elfman. He's in the flower shop," Laki Olietta said.  
  
Chico touched her index finger to the spot on the map, while Lucy watched her.  
  
"I saw Gray statufied on Plumier Street a few minutes ago," Joey Fullborn said. "He was surrounded by mannequins in their underwear. It was... I'm not sure what happened there."  
  
Chico put the Light Pen in her mouth and put her other index finger on Plumier Street.  
  
"One coming out of the Uncrossed Arm, too," Nab said.  
  
Chico had run out of hands.  
  
"Uh. Could you tell me what you're marking off?" Lucy said. "I can't hear the conversation."  
  
"Bickslow ambushed you too, Alzack?" Warren said. "That cheating bastard! I never saw him either. Just the dolls."  
  
"Bickslow's not that strong by himself. I've never seen him in the gym," Joey said. "It makes sense that he'd be hiding in one place and letting his babies do the work."  
  
"And Evergreen's statues are all over the place! She must be roaming around. How do we find them?"  
  
There was a long silence. Lucy chewed on a thumbnail, trying to figure out a trap.  
  
"We can help, then!" Jet said.  
  
"Jet?" Warren said.  
  
"What? Who's Jet?" said Lucy.  
  
"Freed got us. We can't fight," Droy said.  
  
"But we can be bait!" said Jet. "If we get out there and start making enough noise, it'll attract somebody, right?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"That'll work!"  
  
"Good idea!"

* * *

"Everyone's ready," Warren reported, and punched the air. "This is where we start fighting back!"  
  
"That's great!" Lucy said, clapping her hands. "I just have one question. What do Evergreen and Bickslow _do_?"

* * *

Since Lucy had left, the counter had ticked down again to 13. Makarov watched it grimly. It clicked again.  
  
Makarov dropped his head into his hands and let out a deep, heartfelt groan. Was this completely hopeless? He couldn't allow Laxus to take over the guild. It would mean the end of Fairy Tail. But how could he allow his brats to come to harm?  
  
He lifted his head again, and looked at the scoreboard. The number had gone _up_.  
  
Team Fairy Tail, 14 combatants remaining. Someone else had joined the battle.  
  
A faint, disbelieving smile crept over Makarov's face. "Oh. That man's turned up, has he?"

* * *

Mystogan examined the barrier. It ringed the whole town, and blocked any escape.  
  
Contrary to most people's expectations, having something of a background in politics, Mystogan did his best to keep aware of the guild's internal conflicts. This had to be Freed Justine's work, and the leader of the Thunder God Tribe wouldn't have attempted anything on this grand a scale unless it were on Laxus's orders. That suggested that Laxus was pulling something stupid.  
  
What a surprise.  
  
Mystogan sighed, and went to look for Laxus.

* * *

"Help!" Droy shouted. "Help!" He hauled Jet up further onto his shoulder and said in an undertone "This would be easier if you'd left the hat behind."  
  
"We're trying to attract attention, aren't we?" Jet muttered back, before yelling as loudly as he could "Help! Help! We're very helpless!"  
  
They were lurching through one of Magnolia's side streets. Droy was helping Jet to stay on his feet, and Jet was keeping Droy moving in a straight line. That blow to the head had dazed him. "Help!" There was no answer. The townspeople of Magnolia knew better than to get involved with Fairy Tail squabbles. Droy stopped, hauled Jet's arm further over his shoulders again and shouted "Help? Anyone?"  
  
"Oho! I know how I can help you!" Both their heads jerked up. Jet's hat tumbled into the street. "You'll be so much better-looking once you're a set of statues!"  
  
Droy spun around, dragging Jet with him. "Evergreen! It's Evergreen!" they both hollered, over Warren's telepathic link.  
  
Alzack had been following close behind them, lurking in a side alley, and now he leapt out of hiding. One arm was bound up tightly with strips from his shirt, but the other hand was gripping a revolver tight. As Evergreen swooped down on Jet and Droy, he took aim at her.  
  
"Mud Shot!"  
  
High-pressure mud burst from the barrel of his revolver. Evergreen let out a startled shriek and threw herself into a loop-the-loop, dodging most of the blast. Even so, the mud spattered her dress and wings.  
  
"Didn't you already lose to Bickslow?" Evergreen protested indignantly. "Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!" Her wings flapped wildly, spilling streams of golden dust which blew all around Alzack. He fumbled with his revolver, spinning the chamber to select the next round. "Tornado Shot!" He fired. As the wind bullet burst out of the barrel, it churned the air behind it into a spinning cyclone aimed straight at Evergreen. The wind blew the explosive dust away and caught in Evergreen's outspread wings. She was thrown back and spun around in midair.  
  
Alzack was already weakened, though, and the effort was too much for him. He doubled over, and as he staggered sideways into the wall his revolver fell from his hand.  
  
Evergreen came back seething, hair falling down, spattered with mud. "You trash! Fairy Sunbeams: Pixie!" She shot bright rays of dust at Alzack. He dropped down and tried to scramble behind a trash can for cover, but enough of the rays still hit. The dust exploded on contact. Alzack cried out, and went limp. The trash can had been caved in by the impacts.  
  
Evergreen tried to straighten her hair, and failed. She took a step forward, and then took aim to finish Alzack off.  
  
"Evergreen!"  
  
She stopped, and spun around. "Laxus!"  
  
Alzack cracked an eye open. His fingers twitched, but he couldn't reach his revolver.  
  
Laxus looked Evergreen up and down. "You're filthy. Why did you let yourself get into a state like that?"  
  
"Hey! We've been fighting, you know." Evergreen folded her arms and lifted an eyebrow. "Well?"  
  
Laxus grinned and spread his arms out wide. "The old man gave it up. You're looking at Fairy Tail's new master!"  
  
"Oh, God," Alzack rasped. In the back of his head, he could hear Droy relaying everything over Warren's telepathic connection. The other Fairies gasped in horror.  
  
Evergreen squealed with delight. She clasped both hands and pressed them to her cheek. "That's amazing! I knew you could do it, Laxus!" She threw her arms out wide, as if she was going to fling herself at him for a hug, and then stopped dead. "... what did you call me?"  
  
Laxus didn't say anything. Evergreen's eyes narrowed. "Laxus calls me Ever!" She whirled around just in time to see a dozen brightly-coloured painted boars charging at her. Her wings flicked out. She somersaulted over the painted boars, dropped back to the street and spun. "Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!" The storm of needles tore the painted boars to shreds. "Did you think that would work, Reedus? Fairies can fly!" She shot into the air again. "Get out here, you coward!" She flew in a circle, scanning the flat roofs of the houses around. "There you are!"  
  
Reedus lifted his paintbrush to show a tangled heap of rope painted across his torso. "Pict Magic: Fishnet!" He fired the net at her. Evergreen dodged, laughing.  
  
"You'll have to do much better than that!" With every flap of her wings, sparkling explosive dust showered down around Reedus. "Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!" She ignited the dust. Each individual grain blossomed into a tiny sunburst. Reedus was knocked to the ground, but the explosion hit Evergreen as well. A barrage of miniature bombs detonated all around her and knocked her back and forth. Her wings crumpled. She crashed to the ground and sprawled there, dizzy.  
  
What - how had - she'd got some of the dust on herself when Alzack fired that wind bullet at her! Ugh! Fury bubbled up.  
  
"Do you think you can beat me? You're nothing! You're trash!" Evergreen yanked off her glasses and threw them aside. Her eyes started to glow. Alzack shut his eyes and covered his head with one arm. Evergreen stormed over to Reedus's prone body, grabbed his chin and forced his head up. Reedus's eyes flickered open reflexively, and he turned to stone.  
  
"Ugh. Even my Stone Eyes can't make you any less hideous," Evergreen said. She tried to fix her hair again, gave up and pulled it all loose. "Do you see what you've done? I look appalling!" She spun on her heel and started over to finish Alzack off.  
  
"I think we've lost," Alzack said faintly.  
  
"Everyone's got their eyes shut, right?" Tono said, over the telepathic link. He conjured a dazzling light. Evergreen was blinded. She spun around wildly, hands over her eyes. There was a shout.  
  
"Yah! Shadow Geeeear!" Droy flung Jet off the roof above Evergreen. Jet crashed into Evergreen, screaming. They crashed to the ground. Evergreen kicked and yelled. Jet hung on to her like a limpet and pinned her face-down on the ground.  
  
"Get off me!" Evergreen shouted.  
  
"No!" Jet said. She couldn't twist her head far enough to petrify him, and she couldn't push Jet's deadweight off her. Happy let Tono down on the street, and he hurried over to help Alzack up. Theya and Droy limped over to Evergreen. She wriggled and cursed.  
  
"Wow. That actually worked?" said Droy.  
  
"Just to clarify... when I said 'throw something at her'... I didn't mean 'your injured teammate' and 'off a roof'," Warren told them.  
  
Evergreen laughed breathlessly. "Are you _that_ naive? You think you've won?"  
  
They looked at her, pinned face-down on the ground with Jet sitting on her back.  
  
"Yes?" said Alzack.  
  
"Fools! My Stone Eyes have one more power, you know! Remote control!" The Fairies looked at each other in alarm. Evergreen cackled. "Surrender, now! Prostrate yourself before me, or I'll reduce all those fairies I captured to dust!"  
  
"Levy!" Jet and Droy gasped. "Don't you dare!"  
  
Alzack pushed Tono away a little and struggled to load a new round into his gun. "I came out here to save Bisca," he said. The cylinder clicked back into place. Evergreen twisted frantically to look behind her. "But if I have to avenge her instead, then I will! If she dies, you die!" He leant on Tono and levelled his gun at the back of her head.  
  
Evergreen's eyes rolled. She could just about see the barrel of the revolver from the corner of her eyes. Her mouth gaped open. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. Her wail rang through the streets of Magnolia. "I surrender!"  
  
There was a pop from behind them. "Oh, dear," Reedus said faintly. Jet and Droy cheered.  
  
“Reedus's fixed!”  
  
Alzack shot Evergreen anyway. Evergreen slumped against the ground, eyes closed, mouth hanging open.  
  
The others gaped at him.  
  
"What?" he said. "It was only a Sleep Shot."

* * *

A chorus of new voices broke in over Warren's telepathic connection.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
“How long were we out? Has Laxus won?”  
  
"Where's Mirajane?" Elfman demanded.  
  
“Not yet!” Warren said. "Elfman, no idea."  
  
"I saw her maybe ten minutes ago going into South Gate Park," someone reported.  
  
"I'm going there, then!"  
  
"What, by yourself? I wasn't messing with Mirajane by myself!"  
  
"Men don't let their sisters attack their friends!"  
  
“Is Gray there?” Lucy asked, leaning forward.  
  
“Gray? Are you there?” Warren asked, and was answered by a familiar irritated voice.  
  
"Dammit! Evergreen got me! What's going on? Where did I leave my pants? Warren, is that you? What do you want? Tell us what's going on, dammit!”  
  
“Hey!” Warren said, and added to Lucy “Gray's being a grumpy asshole! Why, were you worried?” He raised his eyebrows. “Fond of Gray, are you?” His eyebrows waggled suggestively.  
  
“Don't be ridiculous,” Lucy said loftily. “I have standards, and those standards specifically preclude anyone who strips in public without noticing and anyone with waggly eyebrows.”  
  
“Warren, what are you wasting time for?” Gray snapped. “Tell us what's going on!”

* * *

The results had barely flashed up on the scoreboard when there was a puzzled "Wha?" from behind Makarov. He whirled around. The girls blinked at him. "What happened?"  
  
Makarov grinned wildly. "You're back!"  
  
"Where did we go?" Levy said.  
  
Cana cursed. "Evergreen got us! Tell me she didn't win the contest!"  
  
"It's worse than that. Laxus is pulling something stupid," Makarov said.  
  
Instant comprehension dawned across all three girls' faces. Makarov looked back at the scoreboard, fist clenched in victory. Team Fairy Tail's counter had clicked up by three but, more importantly, the hostages had been released. "What's your next move, Laxus?"

* * *

 

Laxus stared at the scoreboard for a few long seconds, mouth hanging open, and then his face contorted with rage. "What the hell, Ever?" He slammed a fist into one of the cathedral's columns. "They're nothing! They're bottom-rankers! The two useless ones from Shadow Gear? For God's sake, Ever! When did you get so goddamn weak?" His roar reverberated off the distant ceiling. "The goddamn _cat_ , Ever!"  
  
"Evergreen was sloppy. She let them overwhelm her with numbers," Freed said.  
  
Laxus straightened up, but he didn't look around. He spoke in a low voice. "And what do you think you're doing back here, Freed?"  
  
"Well, the game is over," Freed said, as if it were obvious. "With Evergreen defeated, the hostages have been released. Master Makarov will never give in now."  
  
Laxus whirled around, face twisted with fury, teeth bared. Freed threw both arms up to cover his face. A bolt of lightning ripped a trench in the stone floor inches from his boot. The wind whipped through his hair and tore at his coat. Freed looked over his crossed arms. The air was thick with the sharp, chemical smell of ozone. "Laxus?"  
  
"It is not over," Laxus ground out, between clenched teeth. "If you want to chicken out now, then get lost. I don't need weaklings like that in my Fairy Tail." Freed shut up. Laxus thought for a few seconds. "Have Bickslow send Erza over here."  
  
"Do you mean to threaten Erza?" Freed said, startled. "But she's an S-ranker!" Laxus couldn't seriously intend to-  
  
"So what?" Laxus snapped. "Neither of them were likely to cooperate anyway."  
  
"...Removing Erza from the field of play would result in a loss of offensive power," Freed said.  
  
Laxus just laughed. "Are you scared, Freed? Do you think you can't beat them by yourself?" His grin twisted abruptly into a snarl. "You're the leader of the Thunder God Tribe, not some fucking bottom-ranker trash! You can't show me up like that!"  
  
Freed meekly bowed his head. He would have been far happier if both Erza and Mirajane had simply been petrified for the duration, along with the other girls who had entered the Miss Fairy Tail contest; it would have prevented them from fighting, and they might have been more likely to cooperate if presented with a _fait accompli_. "Do you think Makarov will surrender just for Erza's sake?"  
  
"Just for Erza's sake?" Laxus said. "Maybe. She's always been the old man's favourite. But I'm not gambling on that." He lifted his chin. "Did you think I didn't have anything else in reserve?"

* * *

"Elfman, you're Mirajane's brother, right?" Warren said. "You can be in charge of keeping her distracted, then. Who else is near the park and wants to help?"  
  
"Wait, what?" said Gray. "What did you just say, Warren?"  
  
"Warren's been coming up with some good ideas," Droy said. "He was the one who said we should blow Evergreen's dust back on her, so she'd blow herself up."  
  
"Warren, who are you talking for?" Gray said.  
  
"That's harsh," Laki said. "Warren can think of something smart too, can't he?"  
  
"No," Gray said, "because he just said 'Elfman, you're Mirajane's brother, right?'"  
  
"Oh, he did!" the Fairies said, startled.  
  
"Warren, have you been taking credit for someone else's ideas?" Nab said. "That's low, dude. That's real low."  
  
"Blonde girl? Stellar spirit summoner?" Gray asked.  
  
"Yeah," Warren admitted. "It was her idea not to tell anyone, though. It's that girl who used to be in Phantom, the one we didn't kidnap."

There was a faint confused buzz. "Ex-Phantom?"  
  
"Good. She's smart," Gray said. "She figured out a way for us to survive Etherion breaking free, and Loke likes her. Can you get her into the telepathic link?"  
  
"Not unless she stops that buzzing she's doing," Warren said, and turned to Lucy, who was looking rather peeved at being left out of the conversation. "Can you turn off that buzzing noise?"  
  
Lucy stopped looking peeved and just blinked at him. "What buzzing noise?"  
  
"That - well, it's not really a noise, it's a sort of effect on your magic and it's interfering with my telepathy," Warren said. "It's like a buzzing?" He pressed one hand flat against his head. "Though - not, it's not really a sound, it's hard to describe-"  
  
Lucy had been looking blank, but now her eyes widened.  
  
"- like there's a fly trapped in my head, or like a wire vibrating-"  
  
All the colour drained out of Lucy's face. "Stop listening to it. Stop right now!"  
  
"Okay! Ow!" Warren said. "What's the problem?"  
  
"There's no problem! Everything's fine," Lucy said. "Can you ask Gray if it's got worse since he met me?"  
  
Warren relayed that, frowning. "He says no. Why would it have? What is it?"  
  
"I... sort of... ate a chthonian," Lucy said. "That might be it?"  
  
"You did what?" Warren said. "And Gray says, you did _what_? Why?"  
  
"It  tried to eat me first!" Lucy said. "It seemed like a good idea at the time! Is Gray sure it hasn't got any worse?”  
  
“Yes,” Warren said. Lucy was inspecting herself frantically. She didn't feel any different to before the job in Cypress Town. How would she know, though? Ugh! How was she supposed to know messing with chthonians would have side-effects? Actually, though, most of the stories about messing with chthonians were pretty clear that there were side-effects.  
  
"So you can't reach me with telepathy? Is that it?"  
  
"And you're pretty easy to find, if someone knows you and they're looking," Warren said. That must be how Erza had found her earlier. But then there had to be a range to it, because Erza hadn't been able to find her the second time. What was she supposed to do now? Hiding was one of her favourite tactics! Should she only hide in places where she could also aim Caelum at the door? "And Gray says, don't bother learning transformation magic any time soon."  
  
Lucy sighed.  
  
“There's something in the sky,” Chico said abruptly. "There's a lot of something in the sky."  
  
At the same moment, Joey Fullborn said over the telepathic link, “Do you guys see that in the sky?”  
  
Lucy hopped up and came to look over Chico's shoulder. She frowned. “What the hell is that?”

* * *

"Laxus pulled a stunt like that?" Cana said. She raised an eyebrow and took a swig of her beer.  
  
"Well, anyway, it's over now," Makarov said. "Now that you girls and Evergreen's other hostages have been released, he can't keep this ridiculous game going any longer." Even with Erza and Mirajane still under Bickslow's control, with all his talk of making Fairy Tail stronger, his demands for respect, surely Laxus couldn't be mad enough to throw away two S-ranked mages.  
  
"People have been hurt, though!" Bisca said. "Laxus had better see some punishment for this! This can't just be brushed over!"  
  
"Oh, you can be sure I'll give him a proper seeing-to later!" Makarov said. "He's gone too far this time!"  
  
The girls looked at each other.  
  
"I mean it," Makarov said. "This isn't something that I can forgive, even if he is my own grandson..." He looked down at the ground.  
  
Cana hopped down from the bar. "I'm glad I don't have any relatives," she said, a little too brightly. "Well, I'm not forgiving them either. They've completely ruined a good party."  
  
“What about what they've done to Erza and Mira?” Levy said. “They'll be furious!”  
  
“Yeah, let's just hand them over to those two for punishment,” Bisca said.  
  
“Wow. Don't we need to beat them first before we start dishing out the punishments?” Cana said. She looked over at the other two. "You're not going to let your boys do all the work, are you?"  
  
Bisca grinned. "Of course not! If Alzack helped to take down Evergreen, I'll have to get out there and find one of the other two!"  
  
But Levy gasped and pointed. "What's that?"  
  
Cana looked around. "Huh?" Black lines were filling in the archway of the door out. "Something's happening!" In the middle of the doorway, an image of a skull appeared. There was a lightning bolt slashed across its right eye socket. More enchantment display boards covered in grinning skulls flooded the hall. Laxus's voice boomed out.  
  
"Can you hear me, old man? And all you other little Fairies, too. It looks like we've lost one of our rules, so I'm going to instate a new one. So to keep this battle moving, I've activated the Hall of Thunder!"  
  
Makarov gasped.  
  
"There's an hour left," Laxus said. "Do you think you and your team of bottom-rankers can beat us before then?" There was the sound of heavy footsteps as he crossed the floor. "What do you think the old man should do?" Whoever he was talking to didn't reply. Laxus laughed. "You're not thinking much right now, are you? Tell the old man to give up."  
  
"Give up, old man," Erza said tonelessly.  
  
Makarov gasped. "Erza?"  
  
Laxus let out a peal of laughter. "What are you going to do, 'master'? Are you going to let the civilians and your precious brats get fried? Or are you going to play nice and surrender?" His insane laughter echoed around the hall as the display boards dissolved into smoke.  
  
Makarov erupted with rage. "What on earth are you thinking, Laxus? Are you threatening Erza? Are you trying to drag innocent civilians into this?!" He doubled over, one hand clawing at his chest. "Nghh!"  
  
"What's wrong?" Levy gasped. "Master!" Makarov collapsed.  
  
Bisca dropped to her knees next to him. "At a time like this!"  
  
"Master, hold on, please!" Levy said.  
  
Cana had hurried outside. She appeared back in the doorway, her face ashen. "Come and look at this!" Bisca hurried after her. Outside, they stared up, their mouths hanging open. Three hundred lacrima hung in the air around Magnolia like a barrier. The crystals were solid black with accumulated magic. Sparks crackled in the air around them, only visible against the darkness of the lacrima themselves, and miniature bolts of lightning leapt from one to another.  
  
"Thunder lacrima?" Levy was peeking out of the archway behind them.  
  
"Yeah," Cana said. "Every one of those lacrima is charged with an insane amount of magic."  
  
"So the Hall of Thunder is... self-explanatory, really," Levy said.  
  
"What would happen if those things discharged?" Bisca said.  
  
"The town would be engulfed in a lightning storm," Cana said. "What the lightning didn't destroy, the fires would..."  
  
"Well, I'm not going to let that happen!" Bisca snapped. "Ex-quip: Sniper Rifle!" She dropped to one knee and brought the sniper rifle up to her shoulder. An array of magical seals opened up around the barrel and ringed her eye as she took aim. She fired. One of the lacrima burst in a shower of crystal shards and a flash of lightning.  
  
"Nice one, Bisca!" Cana said.  
  
Bisca straightened up and pumped her rifle. “I'll shoot down every last one of-” She broke off. Her eyes widened. She screamed, and spasmed. Electricity flicked around her.  
  
“Bisca!” Levy gasped, and Cana had to haul her away by the back of her dress to stop her reaching out and grabbing Bisca. Bisca crumpled to the ground. The sniper rifle fell from her nerveless fingers and vanished back into her armoury. Levy crouched next to her.  
  
"Bisca! Can you hear me?" She shook Bisca by the shoulder, but got no response.  
  
“Organic Link Magic!” Cana said, aghast. “If they're damaged, they'll reflect the attack back onto whoever damaged them!”  
  
"At this rate, everyone in the town-" Levy covered her mouth with both hands.  
  
"Then there's nothing for it but to take out Laxus himself!" Cana said. "But-" She turned back. "We need to get Porlyusica here to see the master!" She screwed up her face and pressed both fists to her head. "But there's a barrier around the city. Nobody can get out-"  
  
Levy stood up. “I'll deal with the barrier! It's an enchantment, right?" She balled up her fist. "If it's written magic, I might be able to break it! Then someone can ask Porlyusica to come, and the civilians can escape, at least!"  
  
"The civilians don't need to go anywhere! We aren't going to let Laxus set off the Hall of Thunder," Cana said.  
  
"It's not just Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe, it's Erza and Mira as well," Levy said.  
  
Cana cursed. What she wanted to do was charge into battle. Their guild had been attacked from within, and she wanted to fight back! But could they really put all their faith in defeating Laxus in the next hour? Was that an acceptable risk to take with the lives of Magnolia's townspeople?  
  
She looked back at Makarov, lying on the floor of the guild hall. What would he tell her to do?

* * *

Laxus's laughter resounded off the bare walls and through the empty towers of the cathedral, echo piled on echo until it sounded like a pack of baying hyenas. "How do you like that, old man? My new hostages are the entire population of this town!"  
  
"You would go this far?" Freed said, astonished.  
  
"This far?" Laxus repeated, turning to glare at Freed. "I decide what's too far! This is a battle! It isn't over until one side or the other is completely obliterated!" Freed took a reflexive step backwards as Laxus recovered his composure. "What are you doing, Freed?" he said quietly. "Bickslow is still out there hunting Fairies, you know." He turned and looked back at the scoreboard, where the results of Evergreen's last battle were still glowing. Jet, Droy, Alzack, Reedus, Tono, Happy, and Warren versus Evergreen.  
  
The corners of Freed's mouth turned down. Five of those seven had already been knocked out of the game.  
  
"Warren wasn't there. What the hell is he doing there?" Laxus said, and then belatedly remembered Warren was a telepath. He scowled. "Of all the times for them to show some organisation. Freed, show me Warren."  
  
Freed silently summoned up a map and zoomed in on the northeast section of the city, then in and in again until the viewer passed through the roof of a coffee shop. Warren was sitting on the floor, the fingers of one hand pressed to his forehead in the pstandard psychic pstance. That girl who talked to ghosts was by the door, and kneeling next to Warren, examining a map, was-  
  
"What the fuck is she doing there?" Laxus shouted. "That bitch! That little Phantom bitch! What's she doing in my game?" His face went red. A throbbing vein stood out on his forehead. Freed kept quiet. "Freed. Go and kill her," Laxus said. "Kill the other two as well, if they get in the way. I don't need either of them in my Fairy Tail."  
  
"Kill them?" Freed said, startled. "An ex-Phantom hooligan is one thing, but even if we're fighting them now, those two are still-"  
  
Laxus whirled around, teeth bared. "DID YOU NOT HEAR MY ORDERS?!"  
  
Freed blanched, and shut his eyes. He breathed in deep. He opened his eyes again. "...Now that we've come so far, there is no possibility of turning back. I will accompany you on this path, even if it leads to hell." He turned and left the cathedral.  
  
"Very good, Freed the Dark," Laxus said. A faint sadistic smile curled up the corners of his mouth. "It's time you showed them your true power."


	25. Chapter 25

All across Magnolia Town, Fairy Tail mages - and one ex-Phantom civilian - stared up at the Hall of Thunder.  
  
"I would estimate that each of those lacrima contains... a whole load of magic," said Warren.  
  
"So if that thing goes off, it could kill everyone in the town!" Laki said, aghast. "I'm turning into a porcupine again!"  
  
"I can't believe Laxus would do something like that! How far does he mean to go?"  
  
"It doesn't change anything!" Gray said. "If Laxus was planning to just set them off, he'd have done it by now. That means we're still working to the same time limit. We need to find Bickslow."  
  
"He could be hiding anywhere," Warren said. "Alzack and me were attacked by the dolls. We never saw Bickslow himself."  
  
"Alzack and _I_ were attacked," a Fairy said.  
  
"What, you too?"  
  
"No, you should have used the nominative form of the first-person pronoun there," the Fairy said.  
  
Warren sputtered. "This is no time for an argument about grammar!" Then they devolved into a furious argument about the proper time to argue about grammar.  
  
"Both of you, zip it!" Gray barked. "This isn't the time to fight each other over stupid things! You can do that later! Warren, get back to Lucy!"  
  
"I'm just a glorified telephone to you people, aren't I?" Warren said sulkily.  
  
"Yeah," said Gray.  
  
"Lucy says, so, Bickslow is the weirdo with the inability to keep his tongue inside his mouth?"  
  
"Yeah," said Gray. "I picked up some stuff when I was fighting him the first time. Targeting the dolls doesn't work. You can't destroy them; he just moves their souls into new shells."  
  
"Oh, like half-naked mannequins," Joey said.  
  
"Exactly!" Gray said. "We have to target Bickslow himself. That's the only way to beat him."  
  
"So Bickslow hangs around in clothes shops?" Warren said. "Alzack, what shops were you around when you got jumped?"  
  
"Uh..." It took Alzack a second to remember. "I think there was a bakery, a grocer's and a charity shop?"  
  
"Charity shops usually have a load of kids' toys in the back," Lucy said.  
  
"If you need to relocate a spirit in a hurry," Chico said, "it's easiest to trap it in a living thing or a vessel designed to imitate a living thing. Also I think he just has a thing for dolls."  
  
"Ew," Lucy said. Warren obligingly reported that over the telepathic link. "Then he must be staying around places with extra things to move his dolls into! What's the biggest toy shop in Magnolia?"  
  
"Tom's Toy Store," Gray said. "That's not far from here. I'm heading over there. Anyone else who wants to help out, meet me there!"

 

* * *

 

"Mira!" Elfman yelled, as he finally reached the park. There were forty minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder. "Mira!" Birds fluttered from the trees on the other side of the wrought-iron fencing. Elfman turned on the spot. There was no sign of Mirajane. "Mira!"  
  
"Hey! Elfman!" Elfman turned around at the call. Macao and Wakaba came puffing up to him. "Want some help?" Wakaba asked.  
  
"You'd be a fool not to want help from Wakaba. This is a mission to stall Mira, right?" said Macao. "There's nobody in the guild better at wasting Mira's time than Wakaba."  
  
"You're putting yourself down, Macao! You've wasted more of Mira's time than anyone else in the world," Wakaba said.  
  
"At least I'm not married," Macao said. "You should be ashamed, chasing after her like that."  
  
"You're divorced! That's just as bad," Wakaba said. "Aren't you getting a bit old for this, Macao? Evergreen did a number on you."  
  
"I'm barely six months older than you are!" Macao said. "And she got you too!"  
  
Wakaba sighed. "We can't help it, can we? We've got a weakness for the pretty girls."  
  
Elfman stared at them both, and they simultaneously realised that wasn't the best conversation to be having in front of Mira's brother. Elfman was about to send them both away when a high-pitched shriek rang out over the telepathic link. "Elfman! It's Mirajane! On Grandiflora Street!"

They broke into a run.  
  
By the time they reached Grandiflora Street, though, it was too late. Three Fairies were sprawled unconscious in the road. Mira was holding the fourth off the ground by the neck. The wind ruffled her dress and hair. She hadn't even used her Take Over yet.  
  
"Mira!" Elfman shouted. He snatched up a chair from an outside cafe and flung it at her. "Let him go!" The chair sailed over Mirajane's head, but it had the intended effect. Mira turned her head slowly to look at them. She opened her hand. The Fairy fell limply to the ground.  
  
"Uh-oh," Macao said.  
  
"This was your idea," Wakaba hissed back.  
  
"What are you doing?" Elfman shouted. "These are our comrades!" There wasn't a flicker of comprehension in her face. "Damn you, Bickslow!" Elfman said. "As a man, I can't allow this to continue! Beast Arm: Iron Bull!" His right arm transformed into steel. He cracked his knuckles, with a sound like a volley of gunfire. "I won't allow you to be turned against any more of our allies, Mira!"

* * *

Tom's Toy Store was a two-storey terraced building, with a facade covered in technicolour pigs and a gaily-flapping flag on top. Gray examined it as if it were a piece of unexploded ordnance.  
  
"Gray!" Heels clacked on the pavement. He looked up. Cana was hurrying towards him down the street. He grinned.  
  
"Cana! It's good to see you!"  
  
"Have you been listening to Warren's link?"  
  
"I didn't want to get jumped if I was distracted." Gray was still looking around, scanning the street for any sign of Bickslow or his creepy dolls. "What did I miss?"  
  
"I don't have good news," she said. "You noticed the Hall of Thunder, right?"  
  
Gray glanced up at the ring of massive lacrima in the sky and said "Yeah, we all noticed the Hall of Thunder."  
  
"You know it's going to go off in about thirty-five minutes and fry the whole of Magnolia?"  
  
"No, it won't," Gray said, "because we're going to stop Laxus. If that's the bad news, we'd already figured it out."  
  
"It's worse than that. When the master found out what Laxus was planning, he... he had a bad turn. We think it's his heart."  
  
Gray's eyes widened. The colour drained out of his face.  
  
"Levy's trying to get the barrier around the town down so that the civilians can escape and someone can bring Porlyusica," Cana said. "I went to the hospital and sent a doctor over to see to the master and Bisca in the meantime."  
  
"Lucy says yeah, if you can't get hold of the crazy woman who lives in a tree in the woods then an actual medical professional would be the next best thing," Warren reported. Gray and Cana both nodded in agreement, but then Gray frowned.  
  
"What's the matter with Bisca?"  
  
"She tried to shoot down one of the lacrima. They're rigged with Organic Link Magic so that if they're destroyed, they'll reflect the damage back on whoever destroyed them. I've got everyone who's free helping to evacuate the town, but if we can't stop Laxus we'll have to shoot down as many of the lacrima as we can." And that still might not be enough, and then they'd all be lying there injured when the Hall of Thunder went off.  
  
"Then we'll just have to stop Laxus," Gray said. "Talking isn't helping. Let's find Bickslow, kick his ass and move on. Is he in here?"  
  
Cana drew a dozen cards from her bag, fanned them out face-down and offered them to Gray. He picked one at random and held it up. "Eight of Pentacles."  
  
"That's a good sign," Cana said.  
  
"Great! Let's go!"  
  
Actually, the Eight of Pentacles meant that there was hard work ahead of them. Cana didn't say that.  
  
Gray pushed the door open and stepped inside. The store was empty. All the lights were out, and the tall racks of teddy bears, dolls in boxes and small plastic dinosaurs cut out the sunlight through the front windows. The only sound was the thud of Gray's boots and the click of Cana's heels on the wooden floor.  
  
"Gray, Cana," Warren said. "Lucy says, is it possible that you are walking straight into an enormous trap?"  
  
"It doesn't matter if it's a trap," Gray said. "If this is where Bickslow is, it's not like we can leave."  
  
"Douse the building in petrol and light it on fire from the outside, she says," said Warren. "Pretend Laxus did it."  
  
Gray was peering into the shadows, trying to pick out any movement. "It's too dark! There's got to be a light switch in here somewhere-"  
  
They worked their way towards the back of the shop, where Gray found a board of electrical switches behind the till. He flicked all of them. The lights came on one by one, illuminating the whole store, and suddenly the noise of a train whistle made Cana nearly jump out of her high-heeled sandals. A model train rattled around a track built halfway up the walls. Against the far wall, a giant teddy bear presiding over a heap of smaller teddy bears started to wave its arms up and down. The lights strung around a giant model of Fairy Tail's original guild hall, made from brightly-coloured construction blocks, began to blink on and off. Gray looked around. The whole shop was illuminated, from one side to the other.  
  
"That's better," he said.  
  
"That's better! That's better!" the dolls chorused. Gray whirled around. Bickslow's dolls were floating right behind him.  
  
"Cana, look out!" Gray shouted, and threw himself over the till as the dolls fired at him. The counter took the brunt of the blasts. Gray scrambled back to his feet. "Ice-Make: Lance!" Two of the dolls were destroyed. The other spears buried themselves inches-deep in the wall behind the till as the others zipped away, squealing "Lance, lance!"  
  
"Hahaha! Didn't you learn anything from the last time, Gray?" Bickslow called. Gray looked up. Bickslow was balanced on top of the model of Fairy Tail's old guild hall. "You can't damage my babies that way! I'll just move them into new bodies!" He spread his hands wide. "And now I'm sitting in a toy shop - a treasure trove of dolls!"  
  
Cana drew three cards from her bag - Heaven, Mountain, and Death reversed. "Summoned Lightning!" She swiped her hand back. A magical seal appeared in front of her and spat out bolts of green lightning. The lightning shot towards Bickslow. He somersaulted off the top of the model a few seconds before it was melted into slag.  
  
"Oh, no!" Bickslow shouted, in mock horror, hands clapped to his mouth. "Look what you've done to the guild! The old man's gonna be pissed!"  
  
Gray drove a fist into his other palm. "Ice-Make: Lance!" The spears smashed into the wall as Bickslow ran away, cackling.  
  
"Babies! Horizontal Line Formation!" The dolls stacked up and spun ninety degrees to fire a crescent-shaped beam at Cana. She leapt over it. The beam slashed through the base of a shelf of action figures behind her and the whole thing came crashing down. Cana shrieked and dived out of the way.  
  
"Hahaha!" Bickslow had leapt onto the traintracks, and now he was sitting astride the model train as it chugged around the track. "You guys seriously think you can beat me? You couldn't an hour ago, Gray, and Cana can't beat anyone-"  
  
"Shut up! Creepy doll fancier!" Cana shouted, and snatched another handful of cards from her bag. "Card Explosion!" She flung the volley of cards at him.  
  
"Babies! X Formation!" Two wooden toy soldiers darted in front of Bickslow and took the brunt of the explosion, though the ends of the arc of cards still slammed into the walls and the train rails on either side. Bickslow managed to leap clear a second before the traintracks collapsed. He hit the ground and rolled. Gray didn't give him a second to regain his balance. He dropped to the ground and pressed both palms flat against the floor. "Ice-Make: Geyser!" A spiked tower of ice burst out of the floor. Bickslow yelled and scrabbled frantically. He managed to catch himself at the top of the geyser, doing the splits, both feet braced between two spires of ice.  
  
"Rude! Babies, teach them a lesson!"  
  
"Gray!" Cana shouted a warning. Gray whirled around. Bickslow had moved one of his dolls into the giant animatronic teddy bear. The other four dolls buzzed around it like satellites. The giant teddy bear lifted both hands and fired bolts of energy at Gray and Cana.  
  
They both dived for cover as the walls and shelves above their heads were pitted with craters. Flashes of green light strobed in their vision.  
  
"Bickslow, the master won't forgive you for this!" Cana shouted.  
  
"I don't need that old geezer's forgiveness," Bickslow yelled back. "When we're done, Laxus will be the new master!"  
  
Cana flung a card to the floor and scrabbled back away from it. "The Prayers' Fountain!" The card glowed, and then transformed into a brilliant blue whirlpool shooting high-pressure streams of water in every direction. The spraying water knocked down shelves and swatted Bickslow's dolls out of the air. Gray scrambled to his feet.  
  
"Don't touch the water! It's dangerous!" Cana yelled.  
  
"I didn't plan to! Freeze!" The water of the Prayers' Fountain froze solid. The wave of ice entombed the giant teddy bear and the tumbled-down shelves in an uneven sea of ice.  
  
"Oh, no!" Bickslow wailed. "Babies! You're all frozen! What do I doooo?!.... haha, just kidding!" He somersaulted onto the top of a giant plastic dinosaur that stuck up above the ice. "We're in a toy shop, Gray, you can't make me run out of dolls! Let's go, new babies!" He pointed. Three jointed wooden dolls shot towards Gray and Cana, firing bolts of energy as they did.  
  
"I'm getting really tired of these dolls!" Gray snapped. "Ice-Make: Lances!" Two of the dolls dodged aside, but one was impaled straight through the middle. Cana took out the other two with projectile cards. The second of distraction had been all Bickslow needed, though. He'd got to the other side of the giant teddy bear and freed it from the ice with the fifth doll's energy blasts. The teddy bear turned its head. It raised its arms again.  
  
"Cana!" Gray shouted. "Get down!" He threw himself at her and knocked her flat behind an Ice Shield a second before the teddy bear opened fire.

 

* * *  
  
"How long is left until the deadline?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Thirty minutes or so," Warren said.  
  
Thirty minutes to defeat Bickslow, free Erza and Mirajane and then hope they could defeat Laxus. Fine.  
  
Lucy was concentrating on Warren's rapid fire-by-fire, trying to focus on the battles against Bickslow and Mirajane both at once. "Elfman, tell Mira that, uh..." Even though they were under Bickslow's control, a strong enough shock would make them falter - she'd proved that facing Erza - but she didn't know what would work against Mirajane! She pressed both hands to the sides of her head. "Tell her that you've got Cana pregnant and you both want Erza to be the godmother."  
  
"What?" Warren says. "Elfman says he doesn't have that sort of relationship with Cana! And what sort of man wouldn't choose his own sister as godmother to his child!"  
  
"That's the point! It's meant to be a shock!" Lucy said. She was so focused, she didn't realise anything was off until she felt Musca's gate close abruptly. She gasped. "Musca! What happened?" Had that been a flash of steel? "Someone's coming!"  
  
Warren got to his feet. "Who is it?"  
  
A flash of steel... "It might be Erza," Lucy said faintly. "Should we hide?" Warren looked at her funny. "Oh, yeah. We just figured out that wouldn't work," Lucy said, and smacked her forehead. She scrambled up and went to check the door into the back of the shop, in case they could slip out that way. It was bolted from the other side. "We're trapped if we stay in here!"  
  
"Then let's _not_ stay in here," Warren said, and headed out onto the street. Chico and Lucy followed him. The street was deserted. A low wind blew Lucy's hair around her face.  
  
"You're sure someone was coming?" Warren said.  
  
"Someone attacked Musca!"  
  
"It couldn't have been a civvy with a flyswatter?"  
  
Lucy shook her head vehemently. The three of them had formed into a loose circle, looking outwards.  
  
"Aren't Musca keys illegal?" Chico asked.  
  
"I don't see why you have to bring that up now!" said Lucy.  
  
"I don't approve of rulebreakers," someone said. They all looked up. "Whether the rules are mine, or the laws of the nation." Freed was standing on a rooftop above them.  
  
Lucy drew back sharply. Ugh! She should have been on the lookout for that; she'd used the same trick earlier! "So that little fly was a stellar spirit? I deduced that it was a scout because its flight patterns were too direct." Lucy made a mental note of that. "Warren, you were already defeated by Bickslow. You had no right to return to the game. Stand down now or suffer a fate worse than death."  
  
"What's that for, Freed? Are you scared to fight all three of us?" Warren said.  
  
"I only have orders to terminate the Phantom girl," Freed said. "I am merely trying to limit the number of people I am forced to kill."  
  
Lucy started. Forced to- _what_?  
  
"What the hell was that?" Warren yelled.  
  
"Chico, you and Warren get out of here," Lucy said quietly.  
  
"...what?" said Warren.  
  
"If you bite it, the whole link goes down!" Lucy said. "Chico, get him out of here!"  
  
"That'd mean leaving you alone," Chico said.  
  
Lucy unsnapped her keys from her belt. "I'm never alone! Move!"  
  
Warren flung out a hand, and something like a wave of static rolled through Lucy's head. Freed staggered backwards, and slipped. "Move!" Warren shouted, and he and Chico pelted down a side road. A telepathic attack, to buy them time to run? Lucy spun on her heel and sprinted in the opposite direction. Guys wearing lacy cravats and so much hairspray their hair wouldn't move if they were hung upside-down weren't usually big on running, were they?  
  
She threw a glance back over her shoulder as she skidded around a corner, and saw Freed flying after her.  
  
Crap!

 

* * *

Levy muttered feverishly to herself as she worked, reciting the rules from the handbook. A double encryption, using both Rogue and Guile grammar. Oh, that was diabolical. And really not her area of expertise. "Break down the Rogue characters' arrangement data into basic character material, identify the base characters used in rule construction..." She jabbed her pen at the characters on the notepad. "L, O, S, U. Map those onto simplified Guile grammar... No!" She straightened up in surprise. "The L and the S are a red herring! The keycode is 'ALS'!"  
  
There were twenty-four minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.

 

* * *

Elfman crashed through a stall for the third time in the last seven minutes. "Argh!"

Macao cursed and flung out a hand, fingers spread. "Purple Net!" Strands of purple fire lashed out at Mira. Her wings tore free from her back and she launched herself into the sky.

Wakaba puffed on his pipe. "Smoke Crush!" Smoke billowed from his pipe and transformed into fists. They reached up for Mira. She climbed higher. The attack flailed uselessly at the air under her feet.  
  
"This is bad!" Elfman said, hauling himself out of the wreckage and shaking his head to clear it. Mira had ranged attacks. They didn't. Mira stretched out one hand. A magical seal opened up in front of her and a dozen clawed hands made of pure dark energy reached down to clutch at them.  
  
"Smoke Fake!" Wakaba shouted, and suddenly the street was full of Wakabas, tearing around yelling with their arms up in the air. As the dark hands raked their claws through the crowd, some scattered and those that hadn't been quick enough burst into wisps of smoke. Macao hurriedly took cover, because there weren't any duplicates of him out there. Elfman howled and snatched a folded parasol from one of the tables outside the cafe. He flung it up at Mira like a spear. "Mira! Get down here!" Mira caught the parasol, spun and and threw it back. Elfman dived out of the way just in time. "Ugh! Mira, stop! Don't you know it's me?!" Was this what it had been like for them when he lost his reason?  
  
What was it that Lucy had suggested?  
  
"Mira!" he shouted. "I'm having a baby with Cana and we want Erza to be the godmother!"  
  
Mira's wings stopped beating. For a moment she hung still in the air, and then she fell. She landed flat on her face on the ground. The street cratered.  
  
Elfman swore and ran towards her. "Mira!" That was a mistake.  
  
Mira pushed herself back to her feet. "Erza?" she screamed. " _Erza?_ " She lunged at Elfman. He caught her first blow on an upraised arm, but the impact still knocked him to his knees. She slammed a roundhouse kick into his side that knocked him flat and sent him skidding across the cobblestones. That plan hadn't worked!  
  
"Elfman!" Macao shouted. He brought his hands together over his head and fired a purple beam at Mira. She blocked it with one hand as Elfman scrambled back. Black energy boiled up around her palm, with a harsh white light at the core. She let it fly at Macao. The flash of light was blinding. Elfman scrubbed a hand across his eyes and blinked away the afterimages, and then gasped.  
  
Macao had completely disappeared. There was nothing left.  
  
Elfman let out a howl of despair. "Mira, what have you done?"  
  
"Macao!" Wakaba shouted. "No!" There were still a few Smoke Fakes left, but Mira's head snapped around when he shouted. She blurred. Her boot slammed into the side of his head. Wakaba crumpled to the street. The last few fakes dissolved into puffs of smoke. Mira lifted her boot to bring it down on his neck.  
  
"No!" Elfman shouted, and charged. He bowled Mira over in a flying tackle. Mira rolled, shoved both feet under his rib cage and catapulted him off over her head. He hit the ground with a crash that knocked all the air out of his lungs. Mira leapt to her feet.  
  
"Purple Net!" Macao shouted. Ropes of energy lashed out and locked tight around Mira's arms and waist, dragging her away from Elfman.  
  
"Macao! How are you okay?" Wakaba gasped, trying to push himself up off the ground.  
  
"I turned into a lizard!" Macao shouted back. "You keep forgetting I can do that!"  
  
Mira's wings unfurled, shredding the magical ropes bound around her. She shot back into the sky. Elfman sprawled in the street, gasping for breath. Mira hovered above him. A sphere of swirling dark energy began to gather between her hands. Macao hauled Wakaba to his feet. They both staggered in front of Elfman, leaning together, Wakaba's arm slung across Macao's shoulders.  
  
"What are you doing?" Elfman demanded. He tried to push himself up onto his hands.  
  
"You've still got the best shot at stalling Mira! Don't worry about us!" Mira brought her hands forward, blazing with dark energy. Macao and Wakaba tensed and shut their eyes.  
  
"No!" Elfman roared. "I won't allow you to harm any more of the people you care about! Lisanna died because I was too weak, I lost control... I won't allow you to feel that guilt!" Sheer magical energy burst out of his skin. Golden light blazed up around him.  
  
Macao and Wakaba turned around. "That's impossible!"  
  
"Elfman hasn't been able to use a full-body Take Over since-"  
  
"Oh, crap," said Wakaba.  
  
"H-hey," Macao said, "maybe we were better off when it was just Mira."

* * * 

Why had Lucy sent the other two away? She wasn't good enough for this, and he was trying to kill her! Ugh, she'd survived a mad woman trying to summon an outer god, S-ranked dark guild mages, an inter-guild war, Jellal Fernandes and Etherion, and she was going to get killed by some cravat-wearing Laxus fanboy? She wasn't even a member of Fairy Tail! Images of Simon kept flashing into her head, she hadn't even liked him that much but he'd been alive, and talking, and then he'd just been _killed_ -  
  
"Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum! Cannon Form!" As Caelum transformed, Lucy grabbed the ring around its barrel and bolted again, towing the cannon behind her. She needed to find cover! There were shops on either side, but all the doors were locked, there were displays behind the plate-glass windows that she couldn't climb over and some even had metal shutters rolled down in front of the shopfronts. On the corner, she spotted a nightclub with a big window of purple-swirled stained glass. She spun and hurled Caelum through the glass. The window shattered. Lucy leapt through it - glass crunched under her boots as she landed - snatched up Caelum and tore to the back of the club, by the bar. Caelum was almost fully charged. Lucy thudded it down onto all three feet for stability and aimed it at the broken window.  
  
Freed dropped out of the sky outside and stepped in through the window, fastidiously avoiding the broken glass on the floor. He had drawn his sword.  
  
"Caelum!" Lucy shouted. "Fire!" Caelum let fly with a blast of green light. He swept his sword through the air, leaving a trail of runes. "Dark Ecriture: Reflect!"  
  
Caelum's beam rebounded off Freed's runes and came back, straight at Lucy and Caelum. Lucy tried to dive out of the way, and tripped over one of Caelum's legs. She and the chisel both crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs and machinery. Lucy screamed. The blast hit.  
  
Lucy saw the green flash through her eyelids. It took her a moment to realise she wasn't in it. She opened her eyes. A neat round circle, smoking at the edges, had been carved out of the bar behind where she had been standing. The floor was charred. Expensive booze dripped from broken bottles. She still had a death grip on Caelum. Somebody had scooped both of them up and yanked them out of the way.  
  
"It looks like only I have the power to pass through the gate whether you call me or not," Loke said. "I wonder why that is?" His voice dropped to a purr Lucy felt vibrate through his ribcage. "I suppose this is proof that the barrier between human and spirit... crumbles to nothing before the power of our love."  
  
"Love?" Lucy said, as he dropped to one knee to let her down. She smiled a little. "What are you talking about, you silly idiot?"  
  
"Loke," Freed said. His eyes narrowed. One had turned deep purple, and the pupil glowed dimly. "I heard that you had thrown in your lot with one of Phantom Lord's old members. Do you have no shame? She and her kind declared war on the guild barely a month ago."  
  
"You and your kind declared war on the guild barely three hours ago!" Lucy said. "And you're hardly entitled to complain anyway, considering you weren't there!"  
  
"I don't care which guild she belonged to. Lucy is my owner," Loke said, "and whatever the circumstances, hurting her is the one thing I cannot forgive."  
  
"You've chosen your side, then," Freed said shortly. He lifted his sword. "I suppose it's fortunate that you're my opponent, Loke. As a stellar spirit, you're immortal. I would rather not kill any more people than I am required to." At the word _kill_ , Loke's shoulders stiffened.  
  
"Nobody's requiring you to kill anyone!" Lucy snapped. "Nobody's holding a gun to your head! If you're trying to kill people then it's not because anyone's making you do it, it's just because you're an asshole!"  
  
"Lucy, you stay back," Loke ordered.  
  
"Don't be ridiculous," Lucy said. "Caelum, Sword Form!" Caelum transformed. She gripped the handle in the sphere at the end and the ring around the middle of the blade, ready to ward off an attack. "Stellar spirits aren't shields!"  
  
Loke gripped his upper arm with the other hand and raised his fist. "O Regulus, grant me your strength!" Bright light gathered around his fists, almost blinding in the dimness of the club. Freed shifted into a fencing stance, rapier held at the ready. His eyes narrowed.  
  
Loke attacked first. He darted in suddenly and Freed whipped his blade up to slash across his chest. Loke leapt back before the blade could connect.  
  
"A specialist in hand-to-hand combat has a disadvantage against a swordsman," Freed said.  
  
"I have an advantage that you don't," Loke retorted. "A partner!"  
  
Freed started and glanced back over his shoulder just as Lucy swung at him with Caelum. Freed dissolved into runes the second before the blade of the chisel hit him. "Erk!" The momentum of the blow spun Lucy around. "Did you have to remind him that I was there?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Lucy," Loke said, as runes spiraled around him. "You're so beautiful I didn't think he could have - Lucy, behind you!"  
  
Lucy whirled around with a squawk like a distressed parrot. Freed had reformed behind her. As he lunged forward, she swung Caelum wildly. The chisel crashed into his blade and knocked him aside, but Lucy had put too much of her weight into the swing and it made her stagger. Freed recovered faster. He thrust his rapier under Caelum, towards Lucy's stomach.  
  
"Lucy!" Loke grabbed her arm and sent her spinning back, away from the blade, and then before Freed could regain his balance Loke punched him in the face. Freed's head snapped to one side and he staggered back. Loke pivoted to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick into Freed's ribs, but before the kick could connect Freed dissolved into runes again.  
  
"Oh, come on!" Lucy protested. She scrambled to her feet and turned to stand back-to-back with Loke. Freed materialised a little way away from them, and stood still and silent, with his rapier raised so that the blade bisected his face. He was waiting for Loke to move into close quarters again.  
  
Lucy looked around, picked up a fallen bottle and lobbed it at Freed's head. Freed's eyes went wide. He jolted forward to avoid the bottle - which sailed harmlessly over his head and smashed on the wall behind him, because Lucy's aim with a bottle wasn't that good - and Loke moved fast. As Freed tried to slash at him, Loke dived under the blow, rolled onto his hands and slammed a boot into Freed's stomach from the ground. Freed doubled over. Loke catapulted back to his feet, light blazing up around his fist. "Regulus Punch!" His fist connected solidly with Freed's face, and the burst of light hurled Freed back into the wall. He slumped down.  
  
Lucy cheered. "That was amazing, Loke!"  
  
Freed reached out, groping blindly. His hand found the neck of the broken bottle Lucy had chucked at him. Lucy's whoop turned into a yell of shock. "Look out!" Loke looked down sharply, and Freed flung the remaining dregs of the alcohol into his eyes. Loke cried out and reeled backwards, one hand going to his eyes.  
  
"Loke!" Lucy screamed.  
  
Freed scrambled back to his feet, sword raised. He swiped it through the air. Runes followed the path of the blade. "Dark Ecriture: Pain!" Loke howled and staggered sideways, both hands going to his head.  
  
Lucy shrieked. "What are you doing? Stop it!" This was her fault! She shouldn't have thrown that bottle at him!  
  
Freed's sword flashed again. "Dark Ecriture: Pain!" Loke threw his head back and screamed. Freed didn't stop. "Dark Ecri-"  
  
"No!" Lucy roared, and dived in between them. The tip of Freed's blade scored a trail of fire along her ribcage. She screamed a curse and threw herself forward, inside the reach of his sword. "You bastard!" She swung Caelum's edge into his throat. Freed stumbled back.  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lucy screamed. "Why are you using spells like that on your guildmates?" She battered at him with Caelum, driving him back, trying to keep him off balance enough that he couldn't swing his sword. "Isn't being in the same guild supposed to have some significance to you people?" If the Fairies were going to start being backstabbing jerks just like everyone else, what was the _point_ of them? "Aren't you supposed to be comrades?"  
  
"We were, once," Freed said. He spun and kicked her squarely in the stomach. Lucy was flung backwards and sprawled on the floor, wheezing for breath. "But within the context of this game, the purpose of which is to recreate the guild's structure, such notions are meaningless. Laxus's enemy is my enemy."  
  
Lucy pushed herself up onto her hands, gasping. "Stop saying it's a game! This isn't a game! You're trying to murder people!"  
  
Freed loomed over her. Dim sunlight gleamed along the length of his sword. His face was cold and empty. "Everything I've done has been for Laxus." He brought his sword down.  
  
Loke rose up behind him and bludgeoned him around the head with a chair.  
  
"Augh!" Freed lurched sideways. Loke hit him again and sent him crashing to the floor, but before Loke could bring the chair down on his head Freed burst into runes again.  
  
"I'm starting to get tired of that trick," Loke said. Lucy tried to climb to her feet. Loke gestured sharply. "Stay back, Lucy! You're injured!"  
  
Lucy looked down, and pressed a hand to her side. Her palm came away soaked red with blood.  
  
"Oh," she said. The pain caught up with her abruptly. "Ugh!"  
  
"Honestly, Lucy," Loke chided. "I'm supposed to risk myself to save you, not the other way around. How can I show my love for you if you keep doing that?" He moved lightly on his feet, watching the swirls of runes.  
  
"Take Caelum," Lucy gasped. She tried to throw him the chisel. Caelum landed on the floor a few feet away from her. Loke scooped it up.  
  
"Stay there. Try not to do anything heroic," he ordered. Lucy sank down by the bar, with a little hiss of pain. What could she do? Everything she'd tried had made it worse. She couldn't summon another of her golden keys, there wasn't space to summon Ursa Major and even though it was dark, there wasn't enough cover for Serpens to slither around behind Freed without being seen...  
  
The swirling runes solidified into Freed again, back on the opposite side of the room.  
  
"I'm impressed that you recovered so quickly, Loke," he said.  
  
"I'm disappointed that you'd resort to cheap tricks like that, Freed. I didn't think you would go that far," Loke said. He swung Caelum up over his head and bounced on the balls of his feet, ready to dodge or dart in for an attack. What could Lucy do? "Does Laxus appreciate how far you've sunk for him? Turning the Dark Ecriture against your own guildmates..."  
  
"You're not even a true mage, Loke, you're a stellar spirit," Freed said shortly. "You joined the guild under false pretences and then made yourself a slave to one of the guild's enemies. You won't be necessary for Laxus's new guild."  
  
"What sort of messed-up standards do you have for Fairy Tail mages?" Lucy demanded. "Is Laxus a proper Fairy Tail mage? That's not a rhetorical question, is Laxus a proper Fairy Tail mage?"  
  
Freed shot her a look from the corner of his eye. "Of course he is. Laxus is the most powerful mage in the guild."  
  
"Look what he's doing with it! He's threatening to murder everyone in Magnolia!" Lucy said. "An entire town full of civilians! Is that what you want Fairy Tail to be, the guild for homicidal psychopaths?"  
  
"If the master surrenders then there will be no need for any civilians to be harmed," Freed snapped. "We never intended for civilians to be harmed! Makarov is being too stubborn! He's the one putting the townspeople at risk!"  
  
Oh. That was... defensive. Lucy immediately resorted to emotional warfare. "That's the Fairy Tail emblem on your sword, isn't it?" she demanded, gesturing to the hilt of his rapier. "What a joke! You've got the guild's mark on the sword you're using against your guildmates? You must be one of the worst mages Fairy Tail ever had! You're attacking all your comrades for... what, exactly? Because you were told to by some guy who's just sitting back and watching you do it?"  
  
"Shut up!" Freed said.  
  
Lucy raised her voice. "Laxus hasn't been in a single fight since this started!"  
  
"Laxus is saving up his own magic," Freed said. "He means to have an all-out battle with the master."  
  
"Oh, I see, that must be why he locked Makarov up and then hid," Lucy said. "You're seriously siding with him over all your other comrades? And you think Loke is the one who ought to be ashamed?"  
  
"Laxus is my only comrade," Freed snapped. His voice was rising. "I'll follow him into hell itself, if that's what he wants from me!" He clearly owned a giant Laxus poster and kissed it every night before he went to sleep.  
  
"Oh!" Lucy snapped, flinging out one hand. The other was still pressed tight against the slash on her ribs. "Well, if you love Laxus so much, why are you helping him destroy everything he wants?!"  
  
Freed started.  
  
Huh. That sentence had honestly started out as a suggestion that they get married and adopt psychotic babies. Lucy changed tack. "Don't you see what you're doing? This can't work! There's no way Laxus can make this work, Freed!"  
  
"Shut up!" Freed shouted, and attacked her. Lucy gasped and threw up her free arm defensively, but Loke threw himself in between them. He deflected the thrust with Caelum and, as Freed's momentum carried him forwards, he spun and slammed the edge of the chisel into Freed's chest. The bright light of his Regulus magic flared on impact. Freed was thrown back. Loke followed, swinging Caelum by the handle. Luminescent trails followed the end of the blade.  
  
"Even if Makarov surrenders and declares Laxus the new master, what do you think will happen?" Lucy demanded, as Loke darted in for an attack.  
  
"Laxus will make the guild stronger!" Freed shouted, and brought his blade up to parry Loke's strike. Sparks flew from the edge of Caelum's blade.  
  
"How long have you been in Fairy Tail?" Lucy shouted, over the noise of chisel crashing against sword.  
  
"What?" Freed demanded. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"How long have you been in this guild?" Lucy repeated, louder.  
  
"Four years!" Freed said.  
  
"I came to visit this morning," Lucy said. "You know what I've noticed that you apparently missed? They don't _like_ Laxus! This whole threatening-murder thing is not making him any friends! None of them want him to be in charge, and none of them will follow him!"  
  
"Shut up!" Freed shouted. "Once he's the master, they won't have a choice!" Loke was almost a blur, and Caelum was aflame with Regulus light in his hands. Slowly but inexorably, he was pushing Freed back.  
  
"Laxus can't stop them from walking out!" Lucy said. "They'll quit, Freed. They'll just leave! Nobody is going to stay and follow Laxus's orders! If he thinks people laugh at Fairy Tail now, how much worse is it going to be once everyone's abandoned the guild like rats off a sinking ship? He won't save Fairy Tail! He'll be the guy who destroys it! And that's if he's lucky, and they don't just kick his head in!"  
  
"There's nobody in Fairy Tail who can defeat Laxus," Freed snarled. "He's the strongest mage in the guild!"  
  
"Jose Porla was one of the Ten Mage Saints," Lucy said. "Remember what happened to him? That's exactly what'll happen to Laxus!"  
  
"You're wrong!" Freed roared.  
  
"Are you blind or just stupid?" Lucy yelled back. "Saying I'm an enemy of the guild because I used to be in Phantom - Phantom Lord is what Laxus is trying to turn your guild into!"  
  
"No!" Freed shouted. "Shut up!"  
  
Loke leapt high, bringing Caelum down in a two-handed slash which would have cracked Freed's skull open if it had hit. Freed caught the blow on the flat of his sword, the blade across his other palm. His own sword bit into his hand. Freed cried out in pain, and kicked Loke in the chest. Loke staggered back. Freed's blade flashed.  
  
"Dark Ecriture!"  
  
"Don't you dare!" Lucy screamed, but Freed's blade was aimed at himself.  
  
"Darkness!" The word appeared written in purple light across his chest, and then he changed. The top of his coat was shredded as his chest and shoulders expanded. His skin turned grey and leathery. Massive twisted horns erupted from his forehead. Scales rippled across his face, filling in the socket of his left eye.  
  
"Oh, ew!" Lucy said. That was his plan? Become hideous?  
  
"Lucy! Find a back door and get out of here!" Loke shouted. "This is Freed's forbidden form!"  
  
"I'm not running!" Lucy snapped, and flung the worst thing she could think of at Freed, screaming so loud the words tore at the inside of her throat: "Laxus is going to _die_ because of you!"  
  
Freed faltered. Loke ducked inside his guard and slammed Caelum up under his chin, edge-first. Freed didn't stumble back. He grabbed Loke and hurled him away. Loke hit a table. They both crashed to the ground.  
  
"Laxus can't die!" Freed roared. "Why would Laxus die?" He turned towards Lucy, fist raised. His rapier looked like a toothpick in his other hand.  
  
Lucy hadn't actually thought of a reason why Laxus might die before she'd started yelling. Idiocy wasn't terminal. "The Hall of Thunder!" she said.  
  
"Laxus can't be harmed by lightning magic!" Freed surged forward to attack Lucy.  
  
She shrieked and covered her head with her free arm. "Loke!"  
  
On the other side of the room, Loke rolled to his feet. "Regulus Impact!" He threw out his hand, balled into a fist. A giant lion's head, burning like a supernova, smashed Freed into the opposite wall with a roar that rattled the bottles in the bar. The rapier fell from Freed's grip.  
  
"Do you think the Magic Council won't notice if Laxus blows up an entire town?" Lucy shouted. "There are like thirty thousand civilians in Magnolia, Freed! He's threatening to kill them all!"  
  
"The Magic Council has been disbanded," Freed snapped. "The catastrophe with Councillor Siegrain ruined their credibility. All the councillors were forced to stand down!"  
  
"Blowing up an entire town is the kind of thing that would make them reform in a hurry!" Lucy snapped. "You can't just run around massacring people! He'd be the most wanted criminal in Fiore! If Laxus goes through with setting off the Thunder Palace, the only way it ends for him is with a murder trial and a public execution!" She broke off to drag in another deep breath. "Good job, Freed! You've loyally helped Laxus get himself disintegrated!"  
  
Freed let out an agonised howl. "No! You're wrong!" He raised both hands, summoning up a sphere of dark energy. Lucy dived behind the counter just in time. Red and black flashed in her vision. The counter shattered into pieces. Shards of wood and dust rained down on her. Loke and Caelum were hurled into the far wall. Caelum cracked up the middle from the impact, sparks of green light escaping before it melted back into starlight. Loke groaned, rolled over and sat up.  
  
"Give up, Loke," Freed said. You're one of the guild's low-rankers. You can't hope to defeat me."  
  
"I'm not the same as I used to be," Loke snapped, pushing himself up the wall. "Since meeting Lucy, I've regained my strength as a stellar spirit - meeting Lucy made me strong! I'm strong because I'm fighting for someone I care about!"  
  
"As am I," Freed ground out. "Laxus gave me my orders, and I will follow them! I will kill anyone I have to!"  
  
"You're just making it worse, Freed!" Lucy said. "Laxus can't win! Even if Makarov surrendered right now he couldn't win! Committing murder for him now is only going to make it worse!"  
  
"You're wrong!"  
  
"Why am I wrong?" Lucy demanded. "If I'm wrong, then tell me why!"  
  
"Because- !" Freed started angrily, and stopped. Lucy pressed on.  
  
"I'm friends with the Iron Dragon Slayer," she said breathlessly. "I know that sometimes your friends come up with really stupid ideas, okay? But if you're really their friend, you have to tell them to lay off before they get themselves hurt or worse, not help them throw themselves off a bridge because you're too spineless to argue with them!"  
  
Freed's demon form wavered at the edges and shrank until he was back to his real human appearance. His cravat was undone and his hair was a tangled mess.  
  
"If someone is really your friend, then you don't follow them into hell," Lucy said. "You tell them to stop walking into freaking hell!"  
  
Freed started to cry, great racking sobs that shook him like a leaf. He covered his face with his hands. Tears dripped between his fingers.  
  
Lucy and Loke looked at each other, panic-stricken.  
  
"I-" Lucy started.  
  
"No!" Freed shouted. "No!" He bolted out of the club.  
  
As Lucy pushed herself up, Loke hurried over and lifted her up with two hands around her waist. "Are you okay, Lucy?"  
  
The slash across her side burned every time she breathed. "I'm okay," Lucy said. "Thank you, Loke."  
  
"Check this out," he said, and projected a brilliant glow onto the dark wall of the club. Outlined in thick dark shadow within it were three words: I LOVE LUCY.  
  
And then he'd drawn a little heart.  
  
"Erm," Lucy said, and was then mercifully saved from having to make any further comments when her knees gave way under her. Loke caught her before she hit the floor.  
  
"Lucy! Be careful, that was a long fight and you're injured."  
  
"I'm okay. 'M okay," she said. "Do you want to find that back door out of here?"

* * *

To Levy's amazement, when she had managed to bring down the barrier Freed had put around the town, she'd seen Porlyusica already marching down the road towards her. They'd hurried back towards the guild hall against a tide of civilians escaping to the hills around the city, Levy struggling to ignore the shouts of "What are you halfwits doing now?" and "You'd better fix this!"  
  
She pushed the door of the guildhall open to let Porlyusica in and held it as the healer stomped past her. "Thank you for coming!" She caught a glimpse of the display board. Ten minutes left. Could Laxus really be serious? Could they really beat him in time? "I know it's a bit of a difficult situation right now-"  
  
"I know that, too. That's why I'm here," Porlyusica said shortly. "Where's Makarov?"  
  
"In the infirmary! Through here!"  
  
The six beds in the infirmary were really meant for people too tipsy to walk home, but now Makarov and Bisca were each lying in one. A young doctor was standing over them. He looked up as they came in. "Who are you?"  
  
Porlyusica ignored him. She walked straight to the master's bedside and looked down at him.  
  
"Will he be okay?" Levy asked nervously.  
  
The doctor looked Makarov over, sighed, and said "There's nothing to worry about here. You should get out of the town with the others."  
  
Porlyusica shot him a hard look. "What good does it do to tell lies? Bring Laxus here."  
  
"Huh?" Levy said. "Me?"  
  
"Bring that idiot boy who's playing the fool in total ignorance of his grandfather's condition here, now."  
  
"His c-condition?" Levy stammered. "Wh-what do you-"  
  
"Just do it... please," Porlyusica said. She turned. Tears glimmered in her eyes. The blood drained from Levy's face. "He doesn't have long left."

* * *

Laxus was sitting on the steps at the side of the cathedral, knees braced wide, head down, chewing over old arguments.  
  
"Laxus... aren't you taking part in the Fantasia parade?" It had been the disappointment in the old geezer's voice that had rankled. Where the hell did the old man get off, saying crap like that? Like he was expected to go and prance about in a stupid costume? An older memory sparked off. Laxus didn't even remember what had caused that argument. Probably something stupid the old man had said.  
  
"Everyone expects me to do well!" he'd shouted. "Ever since I was a kid - It doesn't matter what I do, it's always just 'oh, he's Makarov's grandson', 'well, he is the grandson of Fairy Tail's master, after all' - I never get proper credit for anything!"  
  
The old man'd fiddled nervously with his mustache. "You're brooding over this far too much. 'Proper credit' isn't an easy thing for anyone to achieve in this world-"  
  
"I don't need you patronising me as well!" Laxus snapped.  
  
The old geezer sighed and lowered his head, ready to launch into another lecture. "Look-"  
  
"Don't you have any feelings at all?" Laxus demanded. "Why did you excommunicate Dad, damn it?!"  
  
The old man just sighed again and shut his eyes. Laxus was clearly being a major inconvenience. Laxus seethed. "He was a danger to the guild."  
  
"Okay, so he did a lot of stupid things!" Laxus shouted. "But he's still your son, isn't he? He's family!"  
  
His grandfather's eyes hardened. "Family or not. I cannot allow a man who endangers the lives of his guild-mates to be a member of this guild. Like the masters before me, I will protect the guild. That is the way of Fairy Tail."  
  
Was that a threat? "So, what? You're going to get rid of me too? If you did, I'd just join the guild Dad started and take you out!"  
  
"The guild he... started?" Makarov's eyes widened. "Do you mean to say that you know where he is now?" Well, that had finally squeezed a reaction out of the old man, but what was he thinking now? That they were in league to destroy Fairy Tail, or some crap like that? Laxus turned away with a dismissive gesture.  
  
"Like you give a crap? There's no point pretending like you suddenly care now."  
  
"Wait!" Makarov said. "He knew extremely sensitive information about Fairy Tail! If we don't find him, the guild might be in danger!"  
  
"Says the guy who went and chased him out..."  
  
"Laxus!" Now the old bastard sounded worried.  
  
"I'm going to surpass you one day," Laxus had told him. "Not for Dad, but for me. So I can be a man in my own right."  
  
Well. Makarov couldn't say he hadn't warned him. Laxus stood up and went back to stand before the display board. Erza was standing by one of the cathedral's great columns, statue-still and silent. "You're a pretty shitty conversationalist," he told her. She kept staring blankly at the stone of the column.  
  
The display board showed six minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.  
  
"He still doesn't feel like giving in, huh?" Laxus said. "That's the stubborn old bastard I know, I guess."  
  
Behind him, the door creaked open. Laxus looked over his shoulder, and his face split into a grin. Erza didn't react at all.  
  
"So you're here! I wouldn't have dreamed you'd actually decide to take part in my game-"  
  
Mystogan's gaze flicked over to Erza's motionless figure for a moment. He spoke quietly. "If you deactivate the Hall of Thunder immediately, you may still be able to pass this off as a joke in very poor taste."  
  
Laxus ignored that. He didn't notice that Erza had lifted her head as soon as Mystogan spoke. "This is my lucky day! You do know, right? All the rumours flying around, about you and me-" He stopped and made a revolted face. "About which of us is the strongest in Fairy Tail. That's what the rumours are about."  
  
"I'm not really interested in that," Mystogan said, "but I would have said Gildarts."  
  
"Eh, he's no use. He's not coming back," Laxus said. "Mira's no good, either. She used to have the right attitude, but she went soft after Lisanna got herself killed." He looked over at Erza. "Erza's got promise, but she's still weak. Look how easy she got jumped by Bickslow."  
  
"If you believe that Erza's weak, why did you feel it necessary to compel her to join your side?"  
  
"Look, I'm trying to pay you a compliment here, Mystogan," Laxus said, exasperated, and broke off again. "Platonically! It's a platonic compliment!"  
  
"...I hadn't imagined otherwise, but thank you for clarifying," said Mystogan.  
  
Laxus hurried on. "Right now, the strongest mage in Fairy Tail is one of us two."  
  
"Is that all you ever think about?" Erza was staring at Mystogan. He was watching Laxus, and didn't notice.  
  
Laxus went on as if Mystogan hadn't spoken. "Let's settle this once and for all, with the title of Fairy Tail's best mage at stake, Mystogan! Or should I call you, the _other_ -"  
  
Mystogan's eyes widened and he spun one of his staves in his hand, producing an explosion of golden light. Laxus summoned up his own lightning magic like a protective shield to counter the blast. The explosion blew out all the windows of the cathedral and blew clouds of dust through all the streets around.  
  
("What was that?" Lucy gasped. "The cathedral!")  
  
Laxus grinned. Mystogan's grip tightened on the shaft of his staff.  
  
"...how did you learn of that?" he said.  
  
Well, he'd finally managed to get a reaction out of the stoic bastard! Laxus's grin widened to bare all his teeth. "Maybe I'll tell you if you can beat me?"  
  
"You will regret this, Laxus," Mystogan said. "You're about to witness a form of magic you won't have seen before."  
  
"Bring it on!" Laxus challenged him. "I'll show you where you stand!"

* * *

Gray and Cana were pinned down behind a display of books by the teddy bear gunner. The noise of the shots cratering the walls and floor around them drowned out Cana's voice, but Gray saw her point upwards. Bickslow's other dolls were swarming over the top of their row.  
  
"Ice-Make: Igloo!" The two of them were covered by a thick dome of ice a second before the dolls fired their lasers. Green flashes lit up Cana's white face. If they stayed where they were, the dolls could reduce their shield to rubble within a minute. If they tried to get out from behind their shelter, the teddy bear gunner would blast them full of holes. Cana drew three cards from her bag and fanned them out. The Mountain reversed, Death, and the Tower. "I can take out the teddy gunner," she said. "But it might bring down the whole shop on top of us."  
  
"That's a risk we'll have to take," Gray said. "Do it!"  
  
Then someone asked, over Warren's telepathic link, "Cana, Gray, can you destroy Bickslow's dolls?"  
  
"Is that you, Chico?" Cana said.  
  
"Oh! Destroying the dolls! Good idea!" Gray said. "It won't work. He can just move them into new bodies!"  
  
"I know," Chico said. "Can you do it anyway, please? Destroy them, don't just trap them. You have to disrupt the integrity of the shell."  
  
Gray hissed between his teeth, but did it. "Ice-Make: Shrapnel!" Once again, the igloo exploded outwards into flying shards of razor-sharp ice. The little wooden dolls were much smaller than the mannequins he'd pulled that on earlier. Two of them were able to evade the attack. Two of them were blasted into splinters. The spirits came unmoored from the remnants of the dolls and, for a second, they floated free. Chico snatched them up before Bickslow could.  
  
"Wha-" Bickslow whirled around to see Chico standing just outside the front doors. "You _kidnapped_ my babies!" Wisps of something that looked like smoke curled between Chico's fingers. She clapped her hand to her mouth and swallowed.  
  
Bickslow clutched at his head. "You _ate_ my babies!" He pointed at Chico. "Get her!" The teddy bear gunner turned. "Ate your babies, ate your babies!" Chico sang, and shot into the air. The blasts blew the front doors out in a hail of broken glass and splinters. Gray seized the opportunity, and leapt onto the top of the display rack that had been shielding them. "Cana! Take out Bickslow!" He slammed one fist into the other palm. "Ice-Make: Bullet Hail!" A magical seal formed in front of him and spat out a barrage of hailstones. The nearest doll was ripped to pieces. Bickslow snatched the next and dived for cover behind the machine-gun bear. The giant bear only managed to get off a few more shots before it was torn into a cloud of stuffing.  
  
One of those shots hit Gray square in the chest and threw him off the display stand. He smashed through a stand of toy trucks and lay still.  
  
"Gray!" Cana screamed.  
  
Chico, floating safely near the ceiling like a stray balloon, snatched up the other two dolls' spirits as they drifted free. "Bullet hail, bullet hail!" she mimicked gleefully.  
  
The last doll left was in a small teddy bear. Bickslow clutched it tight to his chest. "Damn it! You've left me no other choice!" He yanked off his visor. "Figure Eyes!"  
  
Cana screwed her eyes shut and yanked a handful of random cards from her bag. She leapt to her feet. She didn't care if she couldn't see him. She knew where he'd been standing. "Explosion Cards!" She flung the cards at him. At the same moment, Chico raised both hands, palms out, index fingers and thumbs almost touching, and fired off a blast of green energy. Both attacks hit at the same time.  
  
The boom rattled the toy shop and shook plaster from the walls. Cana dropped back down until the echoes of the impact faded - she felt dust settle lightly on her shoulders - and then peeked up over the display rack.  
  
That one display rack was almost the only thing in the store left standing. Half the floor and the fallen shelves were covered in a thick layer of ice. Bickslow was sprawled on his back surrounded by the remnants of the machine-gun bear, mouth gaping open, eyes closed.  
  
"I think we beat him," Cana said.  
  
"We beat him!" Chico confirmed happily, as she drifted down from the ceiling. Cana raised her hand for a high-five, but before Chico could respond there was a cough and a groan from behind them.  
  
"What time is it?" Gray rasped.  
  
Cana and Chico looked at each other blankly. Cana drew a Clock card from her bag and activated it. A holographic outline of a grandfather clock with arms, legs and a little moustache appeared above the card and waved.  
  
"Three minutes until the Hall of Thunder goes off," Cana said, in a small voice. There was no way that would be enough time for Erza and Mira to find Laxus and kick his ass.  
  
"Fine." Gray pushed himself up out of the wreckage. "Then we'll just have to take down as many of the lacrima as we can."

* * *

The ground around Elfman ruptured. Cobblestones broke free and floated in the air. The energy gathering in Mira's hands flickered and faded out. Her eyes went wide. Elfman was glowing, and as they watched his outline shifted and warped and grew until the top of his head was level with the shops around.  
  
Macao and Wakaba both backed away in a hurry.  
  
"Don't do it, Elfman! You can't!" Mira shrieked. She shot down to the ground and landed between Elfman and the other two. "Both of you, stay back! I'll deal with this!"  
  
"Mira! You're back!" Wakaba said. Macao grabbed his arm and hauled him away. Elfman's arms grew longer, until his knuckles nearly grazed the floor. Horns grew from his forehead. An angry red scar opened up under his eye. Thick coarse fur sprouted from all over his body, and his feet distorted until they looked more like a bird's claws. He roared, revealing a mouthful of sharp serrated teeth.  
  
Mira drew in a deep breath and let Satan Soul go. "Elfman! Can you understand me?" She couldn't see any trace of recognition in his eyes. Something at the back of her head started running calculations - how much collateral damage could they afford, how hard would she have to hit to take him down without hurting him, how likely was it that that was even possible? - but that was happening a long way away. The rest of her mind was all blank,  
  
"You... you haven't lost your reason again, have you?" The skin on his face twitched and warped as the scar under his eye sealed up. "Elfman?" He snatched her off the ground and clutched her tight. "Elfman!"  
  
"Mira!" Elfman said. "I'm so glad you're all right!"  
  
"You're still you!" Mira gasped, dizzy with relief. She flung her arms around his neck.  
  
"Oh thank God," Wakaba said, and then he and Macao both collapsed.  
  
"What on earth were you doing? Elfman, that was dangerous!" Mira said.  
  
"I was trying to stop you!" Elfman said.  
  
Mira's forehead creased. Stop her? She wasn't doing anything! She'd only been cleaning the bar, and then... She looked around wildly. How had she got here? Why had she been in Satan Soul? Why did her muscles ache like she'd been fighting? "What happened?"  
  
"It wasn't your fault," Elfman said. It was sickeningly familiar. The same thing she'd said to him, after...  
  
Mira's eyes widened. Her voice rose to a panicked scream. " _What did I do_?"  
  
"Nobody's badly hurt!" Elfman said. "Laxus is trying to force the master to hand over the guild to him. Bickslow mind-controlled you and Erza into fighting on his side, but nobody's been killed!"  
  
"But I hurt our people?" Mira covered her face with her hands and shook.  
  
"Nobody would hold that against you! It wasn't your fault!" Elfman said. He let her drop and clutched her shaking hands tight. "It's okay now!"  
  
"Buy us a drink and it'll all be forgiven!" said Wakaba.

Mira didn't listen. She let out a heartrending. "I hurt you, Elfman!"  
  
"I chose to come and fight you on my own!" Elfman said. "What sort of man would stand by and let his sister be turned against their comrades?"  
  
Mira looked at him between her fingers. "... you fought me to stop me hurting our friends?"

"Yes!" Elfman said.

"You came to fight me so I wouldn't hurt someone I cared about?" Mira said.  
  
"Yes! I swore I wouldn't allow you to feel any guilt!" Elfman said. For a second Mira just stared at him, and then she reached up again. Elfman scooped her up. She wrapped her arms back around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder until her heartbeat and her breathing slowed. "I love you very much, Elfman."  
  
"I love you too, sis!" He looked down at himself, at the massive arms wrapped around Mira's waist, the coarse red fur and the bone spurs jutting from the elbows. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I know you probably never wanted to see this form again, but I-"  
  
"It wasn't your fault that Lisanna died," Mira said. "You were only trying to protect us back then. Sometimes things just go wrong..."  
  
"Mira!" The tears overflowed down Elfman's face. His voice cracked. "I'm so glad you're all right!"  
  
"And how is crying going to help?" Mira asked mildly. "Don't worry, Elfman. You keep our friends safe, and I'll deal with Laxus." Scales rippled over her skin as she shifted back into Satan Soul. Her voice dropped. "Where is he?"  
  
"We don't know. Nobody's seen him since the battle started," Wakaba said.  
  
"Damn it! If he's a man, he should get out here and face us like one!" said Elfman.  
  
"I heard a really big boom from the cathedral a minute ago," Macao said. "I'd have mentioned it, but... everyone was a bit distracted."  
  
Mira gestured. Elfman lifted her up so she sould see. On the other side of town, a vast cloud of dust rose up around Cardia Cathedral. Birds flew cawing from the belltowers.  
  
"... could he be in the cathedral?" Macao said. Mira didn't wait. She braced herself with one foot on Elfman's shoulder. Her wings unfurled. She shot into the sky and towards the cathedral.

* * *

Erza blinked. She looked around. There had been a familiar voice...  
  
Ice water ran down her spine. No. That couldn't be right. She had to be wrong. Jellal was dead, and she'd put two swords through the thing that was left. What was happening? She had been in her room, polishing her armour! And now she was in Cardia Cathedral, watching-  
  
"Hahaha!" Laxus shouted. "You thought some stupid illusion would be enough to deal with me, Mystogan?"  
  
"Impressive," said the man with the scarf across his face. Erza's head snapped back as if she'd been slapped. She knew that voice. She knew _him_. "But you realised an instant too late. My spell is already set up." A tower of magical seals appeared above Laxus. "Fivefold Array: Mikagura!"  
  
Laxus laughed. "Which of us is it that hasn't realised?" A faint glow appeared under Mystogan's feet. He looked down. Both spells discharged at the same time.  
  
Erza's mouth was as dry as sandpaper. She pinched her arm sharply, but she didn't wake up.  
  
Neither mage was slowed down much by the other's attack. Mystogan made the stone floor of the cathedral twist and rise up around Laxus like a stormy sea. Laxus transformed into lightning and shot up one of the cathedral's great columns. "Hah!" At the top he shot down a massive crackling bolt of electricity. Mystogan turned into mist before it hit.  
  
Laxus landed on the ground and rose back to his feet.  
  
"Tch... not half bad, are you?"  
  
"It's kind of you to say so," Mystogan said, his voice carefully neutral.  
  
Erza knew him. She knew with absolute, sickening certainty who that was. It wasn't Mystogan. Or, rather, Mystogan was...  
  
Shock gave way to fury so intense it choked her. Erza requipped into the Flame Empress armour, and drew the sword that came with it from her arsenal. A spark raced the length of the blade, and then it burst into flame. "Flame Slash!" she shouted, and swung down her sword.  
  
Laxus and Mystogan's heads both snapped around, just in time to see the wall of flame racing towards them. Laxus transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot away up one of the columns. She'd been aiming for Mystogan, though, and he didn't dodge fast enough.  
  
He was knocked back, one arm raised defensively, and vanished behind a roiling tide of fire. When the flame cleared, he lifted his head. Smoke curled from the edges of his clothes. His mask and hat had been vaporised.  
  
"Jellal," Erza croaked. "You're dead! I put two swords through you!"   
  
"Oh?" Laxus said, and smirked. "A familiar face?"  
  
"Erza," Jellal said. His face twisted. "I'm not Jellal. I know your link with him, but he isn't me. I'm sorry." He spoke like he'd completely forgotten how to string words together into coherent sentences. "I wanted you, at least, not to-" He stepped back. "I'll leave the rest to you." And then he disappeared into a wisp of smoke.  
  
Erza gaped for a moment before wheeling on Laxus. "Laxus! What the hell is going on? Is this some trick of yours?" Her voice and her hands shook.  
  
"Wipe that stupid look off your face," Laxus said. "It's nothing to do with me if you didn't kill your ex-boyfriend hard enough."  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Erza snapped. "Bickslow ambushed me, didn't he? And that can only have been on your orders! What are you doing?"  
  
"I borrowed you for a bit," Laxus said, with a malicious grin. "You and Mirajane, really. I'm just demonstrating to the old man that it's time he retired and let someone _not_ as old as the dinosaurs run the guild. Someone with a better eye for discipline. Someone like... me."  
  
Erza stared at him.  
  
"You've been very helpful," Laxus said. His smirk widened. "Do you want to see the results? You took out twenty-three little trash Fairies. Mira's done a little better, but-"  
  
"Stop it!" Erza said. "You set Mira and I against the other Fairy Tail mages to force Makarov to step down? You made us attack our own comrades? Laxus, have you lost your mind?"  
  
Laxus laughed. "I'm not done there! I've set up a spell around the town. If the old man doesn't give up in the next three minutes, I'm going to reduce the whole of Magnolia to ruins!"  
  
Erza's mouth dropped open. "Laxus," she said. "You've gone completely insane."  
  
"No, I haven't!" Laxus screamed. Spittle flew from his mouth. "The old man ran the guild into the ground! I'll fix it, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" He blasted lightning at her.  
  
Erza had changed armour in an instant. Her regular breastplate glowed and dissolved, replaced by the jagged plating and bat wings of the Black Wing armour. She shot out of the way. The lightning crackled across the stone and dissipated. "I'm going to deal with both of you," she said, and drew a two-handed longsword from her armoury. "But you first, Laxus!"  
  
Laxus laughed, and shrugged his shoulders so that his coat fell to the floor. He tossed his headphones aside. "Bring it on!"

* * *

There were two minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.


	26. Clash at Cardia Cathedral

A/N: This chapter is slightly over fourteen thousand words. I figured I ought to warn people.

* * * 

Mira noticed the lacrima ranged around Magnolia as she soared over the town. Sparks crackled between them like a floating electric fence. Laxus's magic. She hit the square outside the cathedral feet first, and stormed up the steps. She flung open the great doors one-handed and burst in. Erza and Laxus were already embroiled in combat. As Erza pivoted to throw a kick into Laxus's throat, Mira's scream of rage rebounced off the cathedral walls.  
  
"Laxus! How dare you? How _dare_ you!"  
  
The moment of distraction cost Erza. Her head snapped round. Laxus caught her foot and hurled her away. She crashed to the floor and scrambled back to her feet.  
  
"Mira!"  
  
"Demon Mirajane, too!" Laxus said. "This just gets better and better!"  
  
"You stole our souls and turned us against our family!" Mira shouted. "Laxus, how dare you? When did you sink so low? I will annihilate you for this!"  
  
Erza raised her sword. "We can't let him go unpunished, Mira. Let's take him down together!"  
  
Laxus grinned and held out a hand, palm out. "Erza Titania and the Demon Mirajane, at the same time? This must be my lucky day!" Lightning crackled around his hands. "Come on!"  
  
Mira lunged for him with a cry of rage, her fist drawn back for a powerful punch. Laxus caught the blow on his forearm and then lashed out, hurling her away. Mira spun in midair and landed on all fours. Her claws scored trenches into the floor. Erza darted in from the opposite direction and struck at Laxus' side with her longsword. He grabbed the blade between both hands, a protective layer of lightning crackling over his skin, and fired electricity down the blade into Erza's body. Her body spasmed, fingers locking tight around the hilt of her sword, and then the magic flung her away from Laxus. She twisted to land on her hands and flipped back to her feet. Her armour glowed and melted into the Lightning Empress armour.  
  
"The Lightning Empress armour?" Laxus said, and laughed. "You seriously think that'll protect you from my thunder?"  
  
Mira howled, a wordless demonic sound with undercurrents that sent cold chills down the back of Erza's neck. Laxus glanced over at her. "Hey. Don't get angry just yet. It'd be a waste," he said. "Don't you want to know what I'm planning with all those thunder lacrima first?"  
  
"... thunder lacrima?" Erza said. "What thunder lacrima?"  
  
"What are you plotting, Laxus?" Mira demanded.  
  
"The Hall of Thunder. I daresay you've heard of it?"  
  
Erza gasped. "That was the spell you've set up around the town? That could kill everyone in Magnolia!"  
  
"If you can't have the guild, then you'll destroy it? How disgusting," Mira said. "That proves how unsuitable you are to be master."  
  
"Ow," Laxus said, and chuckled. "I forgot how harsh you are in your demon form, Mira."  
  
"Mira! Keep him here for now," Erza said. She turned towards the door. "I'll go and destroy every last one of those lacrima!"  
  
"You can't!" Laxus said, and let out a wild peal of laughter. "The lacrima are protected with Organic Link Magic. Any damage you inflict on them will be reflected back onto you. You wouldn't survive taking down one! Not with your puny power! And while you've been standing there lecturing me, the clock's been ticking down!"  
  
He spun around and pointed to the display board. Mira gasped. Erza cursed.  
  
"Laxus, you swine!"  
  
"I don't know what the hell the old man's thinking," Laxus said. "Does he not give a shit what happens to this town?... well, neither do I! I'll raze it to the ground!"  
  
There were thirty-two seconds left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.

* * *

"Hey! Everyone, can you still hear me?" Warren yelled, all across Magnolia. "Quit just lying around, people! Get up!"  
  
The streets were full of civilians, some still in their fancy dress costumes for the festival - dozens of witches, pirates and animals of all sorts flooding towards the roads out of the city. From high up, anyone would be able to see crowds of townspeople already gathered on the hills around Magnolia.  
  
"There's no time left!" Warren said. "We have to take out as many of those lacrimas as we can, with all the power we have! We can't let Laxus destroy the town!"  
  
Cana hauled Gray onto the roof of the toy store, out of the way of the fleeing crowds. "We'll get a better shot from up here," she said.  
  
Wakaba's voice came over the telepathic link. "Macao, you better just lie down and take a nap. I doubt you can handle it!"  
  
"Hey! Big words from an old fart!" Macao said. "I'll take down twice as many as you will!"  
  
Gray pressed his fist against his palm and threw up both hands. "Ice-Make: Lance!" A magical seal formed in front of him and ice spears burst out of it, shooting high into the air. "Reach them!" Gray yelled.  
  
Cana drew three cards from her bag and hurled them into the sky. "Projectile Cards!" The cards shot towards the distant lacrima like bullets. Chico soared high over the roof of the toy shop and swiped both hands down through the air, creating a beam of green energy. Elfman, still in his Beast Soul takeover, tore the flat top from a table and hurled it at the lacrima like a discus. All over Magnolia, Fairy Tail mages fired off attacks at the sky.  
  
Lucy couldn't hear the telepathic conversation, but she saw the spells arcing high into the sky. They were attacking the lacrima? Was time up already? Loke had gone, and she didn't have the strength left to open another gate of the zodiac. Caelum would be too badly damaged to fire. There wasn't anything she could do.  
  
The civilians in the street around her looked up at the sky, with shouts of "What are those?", "What's going on?" and "What are those idiots doing now?"  
  
"Excuse me!" Lucy shouted, over the chaos. "Don't freak out, but can you please all head towards the centre of town?"  
  
The citizens of Fairy Tail's town didn't respond well to being told not to panic. They fled screaming.  
  
Above Magnolia, dozens of the thunder lacrima exploded with cracks and clouds of thick black smoke. Sparks crackled around Gray and Cana, and then they were struck down by the full force of their own spells. All over the town, Fairies howled and crumpled to the streets as lightning blazed around them.

* * *

Information boxes began to pop up all over the display board. MAX: 1. GRAY: 3. CANA: 3. REEDUS: 1. ALZACK: 1. They piled up, layering on top of each other until not a trace of the display board was left.  
  
It wasn't enough. There were still one hundred and eighty-four lacrima remaining. The timer hit zero.  
  
A sign flashed up. AWAITING ACTIVATION.  
  
Laxus burst out laughing. "This is it! The old man is going to regret not giving in! I'll turn Magnolia to rubble! There'll be nothing left!"  
  
"The Hall of Thunder needs activation?" Erza said, stunned. Well, Laxus wouldn't want to blow up the town by _accident_...  
  
"Then we won't give him a chance to activate it!" Mira said, and charged Laxus, screaming. She threw a punch at him that would have shattered stone. He caught her arm and hit her in the face so hard her head snapped back. Erza yelled. As Laxus drew his fist back to punch her again, Mira grabbed hold of his arm, twisted and wrapped both legs around his middle. Her wings unfurled from her back. The added weight pulled Laxus off-balance. Mira rolled back, landing on her hands, and tossed Laxus over her head. He landed on his back with a wheeze as the impact knocked the air out of his lungs. Erza moved in to attack. Laxus slapped a palm against the stone floor. "Lightning Eruption!"  
  
Lightning burst out of the ground below Erza and Mira, hurling them both into the air. Mira cried out. Electricity crackled through Erza's armour, but the protective spells layered into the fabric kept it from reaching her skin. She landed on her feet and threw her sword aside. It had disappeared back into her armoury before it hit the ground. She snatched the lightning spear out of the air in its place and slammed the foot of the shaft into the ground. A shield of blue-white electricity materialised in front of the spear.  
  
"You're trying to use lightning magic against me? Don't you know what happens when two mages of the same type clash, Erza?" Laxus shouted. "The winner is determined by who has the most power and skill!"  
  
"And by the strength of their heart," Erza retorted. "You should have learned that from the master!" She braced herself. "You won't be able to blast through this, Laxus!"  
  
Laxus took the bait. He hurled a bolt of lightning at her. Erza gritted her teeth and leant her weight into the staff. Erza's shield absorbed the electricity, but Laxus poured more power into the attack until lightning raged around the edges of the shield and reached out jagged tendrils towards her skin. Her eyes watered from the glare. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled from static electricity and the air had the sharp metallic tang of ozone. Sparks flickered between the twin points of the spear. The shield was collapsing.  
  
While Laxus had been trying to bludgeon through Erza's shield, though, Mira had scrambled to her feet.  
  
"Laxus!" She hurled herself at him again. He spun to meet her charge. They exchanged blows so fast it was a blur, both trying to batter down the other's defences. Sparks of electricity and flickers of dark energy flashed between them. Erza bent over for a moment, with her hands on her knees, to catch her breath, and then wearily straightened up and switched out her lightning spear for a curved saber with a purple-wrapped hilt. She couldn't risk charging in now, though; Mira and Laxus' battle was too fast and violent, and there was too great a chance that she would attack Laxus and accidentally impale Mira. Damn it!  
  
Mira spun aside from a blow, dark energy gathering between her hands, and Laxus caught hold of her tail. He swung her over his head and spiked her into the floor. Mira howled, twisted and tried to scythe his legs out from under him with a leg sweep. Laxus jumped over it.  
  
The instant before he landed on her chest, Mira flung up one hand, conjuring a spiral of seething purple energy and a magical seal. "Evil Push!" Laxus was blasted into the air.  
  
Mira sagged against the ground, wheezing. Erza broke into a run. The Lightning Empress Armour dissolved into the Black Wing Armour in mid-stride. "Moon Flash!" Her wings snapped down. She shot past Laxus, her blade leaving glowing white arcs behind it which slashed into Laxus. He roared and transformed into lightning. Erza dropped back to the ground and spun, sword raised again to ward off an attack. Laxus shot to the top of a column and transformed back. "Thunder Bullets!"  
  
A hissing ball of sparks formed around his right fist and spat out tiny concentrated orbs of lightning with the speed of a machine gun. Mira was hit under the ribs and knocked convulsing to the floor. Erza switched back to the Lightning Empress armour and threw both forearms up over her head. The bullets ricocheted off her gauntlets. Yellow flashed in the corner of her vision, and she just had a moment to realise that wasn't a thunder bullet before a boot slammed into her chest. Erza was flung backwards and sent skidding across the floor, into Mira. Lightning crackled across her breastplate and flickered out.  
  
"Are you still awake?" Laxus said, and bared his teeth as Erza tried to push herself up.  
  
"Mira," she gasped. "Mira!"  
  
"Gonna kill him," Mira wheezed. Her eyes were crazed, the pupils narrowed to slits. "Not even ashes left-"  
  
Erza groped for her sword.  
  
"I'm getting really bored of that armour, Erza!" Laxus said. "I'll overload it!" He thrust one fist into the air. "Resound, roar of thunder!" Lightning flashed around him. A great ball of concentrated electricity began to grow above them.  
  
"Why is he doing this?" Mira rasped.  
  
"He's crazy," Erza hissed back. Her twitching fingers brushed the hilt of her sword.  
  
"No," Mira said. "Why is he doing this when he could be activating the Hall of Thunder?"  
  
Laxus stopped. Sparks ran up his arm to join the massive orb of lightning hanging over their heads.  
  
"I think he heard you," Erza rasped. She set the point of her saber into a crack between two paving stones and hauled herself to her knees.  
  
Laxus looked over his shoulder. The sign on the display board blinked on and off.  
  
AWAITING ACTIVATION.  
  
Laxus looked at it like he'd forgotten what it was.  
  
"...why aren't you activating the Hall of Thunder?" Erza croaked. "You had a shot. Why didn't you take it?" Nobody just _forgot_ that their superweapon was sitting right there waiting to be set off, did they?  
  
"...Shut up!" Laxus said.  
  
"Activate the Hall of Thunder!" Mira said. "Do it! Do it now, Laxus!"  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"You were bluffing! You never meant to go through with it!" Mira said.  
  
"We should have realised sooner," Erza said. "What good would destroying Magnolia do you? You were just trying to intimidate the master into stepping down, Laxus, and you failed!" She pushed herself up to her knees. "It's over!"  
  
"It is not over!" Laxus screamed.  
  
"What are you going to do now?" Mira demanded. "How can you keep this going? How do you imagine you'll seize control of the guild now?"  
  
Laxus snarled. Lightning erupted from the ground around him, so bright Erza had to cover her eyes with her hand. Electricity snapped between his bared teeth and bled out of his eyes. " _By force_!" he shouted. "What was I thinking, trying to make a bargain with the old man? I should have relied on my own power from the start! My power is the core of my identity!"  
  
"He's lost control," Mira said. "Laxus, you've lost your mind!"  
  
"Shut up!" Laxus shouted, white with fury. "I'll make you shut up!" He threw his arm in the air again. "Resound, roar of thunder! Fall from the sky and turn everything to ash!"  
  
Erza looked up. The lightning storm came crashing down. Mira's cry of fury was drowned out by the boom of thunder. The spell blew a massive crater in the floor of the cathedral and threw up a vast rolling cloud of stone dust. A column toppled with a crash that shook the cathedral from its foundations to its two belltowers. Laxus's demented laughter reverberated from the walls. "Hahahaha! How are you going to stop me now?" The dust settled slowly. Laxus stopped laughing.  
  
Erza was still on her knees, but now she was leaning on her lightning spear. The Lightning Empress Armour was ruined. Her greaves, gauntlets and shoulder guards were scattered around her in pieces, the fabric of the skirt was shredded and the breastplate was hanging on by a scrap of leather. The shaft of the spear had cracked right down the middle. The twin points had been almost melted, and the drum linking the twin points to the shaft had burst open. Erza had caught the blast with the spear, and channeled it down through the foundations of the cathedral into the earth.  
  
Laxus bared his teeth. "Still alive, huh? You don't know when to give up, do you, Erza?"  
  
"We're mages of Fairy Tail. We'll never give up," Erza said. "You'd have to kill us all to take over, Laxus!"  
  
Laxus just grinned. "Are you volunteering to be first?" He spread out his hands. Sparks jumped between his fingers. "Come on, Fairy Tail! I'll destroy every last one of you!"  
  
Erza made a disgusted noise and climbed laboriously to her feet. "My life... has been bought too dearly for me to let you take it away now." Her legs shook, but her voice was steady. "After... after what happened at the Tower of Heaven, I had to have a lot of my armours reforged."  
  
Laxus scowled. "So?"  
  
"So I had a new one made, while I was doing it." The ragged remains of the Lightning Empress armour sloughed away. They were replaced by a suit of pink plate armour, with intricate wing-shaped decorations on the shoulder guards and headdress. "The Armadura Fairy Armour! The reason it bears the guild's name is obvious." Behind her, Mira rose to her feet with a hiss that was half pain and half barely-contained rage.  
  
"Fairy Armour?" Laxus said. "I'll enjoy smashing that to pieces!"  
  
"Let's go, Mira!" Erza said. She sprang to one side. Mira charged dark energy between her hands and fired the beam at Laxus. "Demon Blast!" Before the spell hit, Laxus transformed into lightning again and shot out of the way, up one of the cathedral's great columns. The blast carved a neat semicircle into the side of the column under him. Laxus transformed back at the apex of the column and hurled lightning down at Mira. She caught the barrage on a glowing purple shield.  
  
"Laxus!" Erza shouted, and attacked him from the other direction. As she slashed her sword through the air, it left behind arcs of brilliant green energy which shot towards Laxus. He summoned up a shield of lightning, but the impact still hurled him across the cathedral, into the chancel. It barely slowed him down for a second. He rolled back to his feet and leapt onto the altar. "You should understand this, both of you!" he shouted, electricity crackling in his palm. "Don't you see how pathetic the guild has become? We're a laughingstock!" He flung the lightning at them. Mira shot up the wall like a lizard, claws digging holes in the stone. Erza switched her sword for one with a non-conductive ceramic blade and slashed through the bolt of lightning. It hit the ground on either side of her. "The guild is stronger than it's ever been, because of the bonds between all our mages!" she shouted. "You can't make the guild stronger by destroying that!"  
  
"The most important thing is that everyone is happy," Mira ground out from between her serrated teeth.  
  
"Is this even about the guild?" Erza demanded. "Turning us against the rest of the guild, filthy tricks like that - you just want to punish everyone for laughing at one joke!"  
  
"I won't tolerate that sort of disrespect!" Laxus roared. "Do you expect me to just take that?"  
  
"Erza, I heard a joke from Gray recently. I think he picked it up from Lucy," Mira said. "Why doesn't Mystogan visit the guild more often?"  
  
"...I don't know. Why doesn't Mystogan visit the guild more often," Erza said.  
  
"It's understandable, isn't it?" Mira said. "If I had a boyfriend who wore fur with leopard-print, I would be ashamed to show my face as well."  
  
There was a long, empty pause. Erza forced a laugh.  
  
"Shut up!" Laxus roared. "Shut up! I'll kill you both!" He flung out both hands, palms down. "Lightning Eruption!"  
  
All across the cathedral, lightning burst out of the floor. Erza and Mira were both hurled into the air, screaming. Mira's wings unfolded and battered at the air, keeping her aloft. Erza twisted in mid-fall and managed to catch the railing of the choir gallery. She swung there, feet kicking desperately. Eight feet below, a sea of lightning raged across the floor of the cathedral, licking at the columns and the edges of the altar. Laxus howled with deranged laughter.  
  
Mira dived for Laxus and threw a punch at his face. He caught her arm. She slammed her forehead into the bridge of his nose. He staggered back but didn't let go. She twisted her forearm, grabbed hold of his wrist, and they traded a barrage of punches too fast to even see.  
  
Erza hauled herself onto the railing of the choir gallery and ran along it. She leapt down onto the altar, sword drawn back for a strike. Caught between the two of them, Laxus roared and hurled them both away with a gigantic blast of electricity. Mira was flung through the pipe organ, with a crash of breaking wood and the scream of twisting metal and a loud, discordant noise as she smashed through the keyboard.  
  
Erza hit the floor of the cathedral with a scream as the electricity coursed through her body. "Heaven's Wheel Armour!" The Armadura Fairy Armour dissolved.As its powerful defensive enchantments vanished, searing electricity coursed through her body. Erza screamed louder and threw out a hand. A dozen swords appeared floating all around her. She closed her hand into a fist, and all twelve swords drove themselves a foot deep into the floor of the cathedral. They acted as lightning rods, drawing the electricity away. Erza shot into the air and tumbled over the railing of the choir loft.  
  
"Hahahahah! Is this the best the old man has to offer?" Laxus shouted. He turned, arms spread wide. "This is pathe-"  
  
Mira clawed herself out of the ruined organ and dragged a long pipe from the wreckage. She hurled the pipe at Laxus like a spear. It hit him square in the ribs. The impact threw him off the altar and sent him crashing to the floor. He scrambled back to his feet, snarling, but Erza didn't give him time to launch another attack.  
  
"Circle Sword! Dance, my blades!" She was balanced on the railing of the choir gallery. Half a dozen swords spun around her like a whirlwind. She raised the twin swords of the Heaven's Wheel armour over her head, brought them both down hard with a cry of exertion and sent the swords flying at Laxus. He threw his arms up over his head defensively and bellowed with rage as the swords slashed into him. Mira shot in under his guard and slammed her palm, burning with dark energy, into his chest. The detonation blasted Laxus back.  
  
"Re-quip!" Erza switched back to the Armadura Fairy armour and the two one-handed swords that came with it. She slashed the swords through the air, and sent arcs of green energy scything towards Laxus. They knocked him back and rolled him over and over.  
  
"Now, Mira!" Erza shouted. "Fairy Piercing Sword!" Her swords blazed with green light.  
  
A glassy orb materialised between Mira's hands, and grew darker as she poured more energy into it until it seemed to suck in all the light in the cathedral. "Fire!" Erza's bolt of green light and the Soul Extinction struck at the same time. The flash of light was blinding, and then the force of the blast threw both Erza and Mirajane off their feet and sent them skidding across the floor. It ripped the paving stones apart. It blew the base of a column into gravel and flying stone shrapnel, bringing the rest of the column crashing down. High above, the cathedral bells rang in their towers as the cathedral shook around them.  
  
"Did it work?" Erza said, blinking the afterimages from her eyes and spitting out dust.  
  
Laxus's voice echoed out of the dust cloud. "That's all the power you two can muster up?" Erza hissed between her teeth and raised her sword, all her muscles tensed to meet a sudden attack. Mira dropped into a crouch, talons raised and fangs bared. "I'm disgusted, that you can call yourselves S-rank mages of Fairy Tail." The dust settled, slowly. Laxus was on his feet and standing up straight. There was an open gash at his hairline, and blood ran down his face over his scar. Blood soaked through his shirt around dozens of slashes from Erza's swords. More blood crusted his nostrils from the headbutt Mira had given him, and one eye was starting to swell up. In a few hours, he wouldn't have an inch of skin that wasn't bruised black. His taut, mad grin hadn't flickered.  
  
"How is he still standing?" Mira said. Her tail lashed back and forth behind her. "That's impossible! Is he that strong?"  
  
They were both tired, Erza remembered, with a tremor of apprehension. They'd been fighting all day, even if they didn't remember it.  
  
"It's simple, really," Laxus said. "I kept it a secret, because I hate the old man's lectures. But I'll share it with you specially." His bared teeth grew longer and sharper. His muscles bulged until the seams of his shirt gave way.  
  
"What's he doing?" Mira said.  
  
Erza shook her head and settled back into a fighting stance. Sweat was making her hands slippery. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword.  
  
Tendons stood out like steel cables in Laxus's neck. Scales formed on his forearms. He looked like... a dragon.  
  
No. That couldn't _possibly_ be right-  
  
Laxus drew in a deep breath, and threw back his head. Sparks flashed between his teeth. "Lightning Dragon's Roar!" A massive blast of churning electricity burst from his mouth.  
  
"Mira, look out!" Erza screamed. It was already too late. The storm hit them. It hurled them back off their feet and sent them crashing to the ground, limbs spasming and white flashing in their vision. It ploughed a deep furrow in the stone floor of the cathedral, and when the spell was exhausted, it left Mira and Erza sprawled on the ground. The Fairy Armadura armour had cracked clean across the breastplate. Mira's Satan Soul Take Over dissolved into wisps of smoke. Her long maroon dress hung in shreds. Her hair tumbled across her face.  
  
"Mira!" Erza gasped. Mira didn't move. Erza tried to push herself up, but her limbs wouldn't obey. Her muscles twitched uncontrollably. She tasted acid in the back of her mouth.  
  
"Oh? You two are still alive?" Laxus said. "I'll finish you off, then." He rolled his shoulders and raised both hands, fingers spread. How was he still standing? They'd thrown everything they had at him, and Erza had fought Natsu enough times to know that Dragon Slayer magic didn't make anyone invincible. Was he that strong?  
  
Power was nothing to do with it, she realised with a shudder. This was pure insanity flooding through Laxus, keeping him on his feet and laughing. They'd thrown everything they had at him, but he was too far gone to even feel the pain. "You two, Mystogan, the old man, the little trash mages in the guild, everyone in the town - I'll wipe you all out!" A ball of light began to grow between his hands. It was so small, but the level of magical energy emanating from it kept Erza and Mira down from sheer crushing pressure. It felt like a weight on her back pressing Erza into the ground, pressing the air out of her lungs. The feeling was familiar, somehow, not anything she'd felt before, but something she'd been told about by the older guild members...

Mira's eyes fluttered open. "What is it? This power..."

The spell Master Makarov had used against Ivan, years ago. "Fairy Law!"  
  
"Laxus, stop!" Erza screamed. "This is insane!"  
  
The magic kept growing. Waves of power crashed and roiled against the walls of the cathedral. Laxus howled.  
  
"Laxus!" Levy screamed. "Stop!" She was in the doorway, clutching at the doorframe to stay upright against the pressure.  
  
"Levy, run!" Mira shouted, even though it was hopeless. There was no escape from Fairy Law.  
  
"Laxus!" Levy shouted. Her voice cracked. "The master is... your grandfather is.. he's _dying_!" Laxus's eyes widened.  
  
Dying? The word struck clean through Erza's armour. A heavy weight dropped into her stomach. Her heart stuttered in her chest. She twisted to look behind her. Tears were streaming down Levy's face.  
  
"So please, come and see him!"  
  
"The master... dying?" Erza rasped.  
  
"No," Mira said. "No. No!"  
  
Levy's face twisted, trying to hold back sobs.  
  
"Perfect timing!" Laxus said. Fairy Law burned between his hands. "Looks like my chances of making master just went up again!"  
  
Levy covered her mouth with her hands. "Laxus!"  
  
"You bastard," Erza said. "You _bastard_!"  
  
Laxus roared with laughter. "Disappear, Fairy Tail! I'll build it up again from scratch! Everyone will cower in fear before my ultimate guild!"  
  
"Laxus, you can't! These are your comrades!" Mira shouted, struggling to push herself up. Levy fell to her knees by the door.  
  
Laxus brought his hands together. "I invoke Fairy Law!"  
  
The spell washed over the cathedral. It bleached all colour from the world and left nothing behind but stark white light, as cold and pure as glacial ice, without malice or mercy. It washed over the Fairy Tail mages' unconscious bodies in the streets, over Gray, Cana and Chico as they lay senseless on the roof of the toy store. There was time for Lucy to see the spell coming, but no time to run or even scream. Magnolia was swallowed up in light.  
  
When the spell faded away, dust drifted around Laxus and lapped the pillars of the cathedral. The bodies of Erza, Mira and Levy were no more than dim outlines in the haze. Laxus panted for breath. His mouth twisted into a savage grin. "I've... surpassed the old man..."  
  
Levy coughed.  
  
Laxus looked up.  
  
Erza pushed herself up on one elbow, grimacing with pain. "Are you two all right?"  
  
Laxus stared at her, his mouth hanging open. "Im- impossible," he said. Why were they not dead? He'd cast the spell perfectly!  
  
"I think so," Levy said. "What about Mira?"  
  
Mira turned her head slightly until she could see them. "I thought we were supposed to be dead?"  
  
"What the fuck is going on?" Laxus bellowed. He looked at his hands, as if he was trying to see how they'd failed him. "How can anyone survive an attack of that magnitude?"  
  
A voice answered him from the cathedral entrance. "All the guild mages and the townspeople are safe." Levy looked around, startled.  
  
"Freed!" Laxus said.  
  
"Not a single person was hurt," Freed said. His hair was dishevelled, his coat hung open and his eyes were bloodshot, and he was smiling. It was a dull, exhausted smile, but it was there.  
  
"That's not possible!" Laxus shouted. "My Fairy Law was perfect!"  
  
"It looks like your power isn't the only thing you inherited from the master," Freed said. "Fairy Law only targets those people the caster considers their enemies. Do you understand what I'm saying?"  
  
Laxus's lips skinned back over his teeth. He stared blindly at Freed, chest heaving. "You can't lie to your magic," Freed said. "This is how you really feel."  
  
"No!" Laxus shook his head violently. "Anyone who gets in my way is my enemy! They're my enemies!"  
  
"Laxus, stop. Please stop," Freed said. "Just go and see Makarov-" He took a step forward.  
  
"I don't care what the hell happens to that old fart!" Laxus shouted. Electricity blazed up around him. "I'm not his grandson! I'm me! I'm Laxus!" His voice rose to an enraged howl. "I'm Laxus!"  
  
"We know who you are!" Erza shouted. "You're a mage of Fairy Tail! And you should act like one!" The Armadura Armour cracked and sloughed away as she pushed herself to her knees, leaving her in her plain blue skirt and white blouse. "Do you think anyone cares just because you two are related by blood? The guild is our family! We're all family, Laxus! How can you expect to be our master if you don't understand that?" She tried to stand and slipped sideways.  
  
"You're the one who doesn't understand!" Laxus screamed at her. "You don't understand anything!"  
  
"We're supposed to be guildmates, Laxus!" Mira said. She clambered to her feet, swaying, and leant on a column. "It doesn't matter what anyone understands! Do you think anyone understood what it was like for Elfman and me, when Lisanna-" Her voice cracked. "Nobody could understand that, but they all stood by us when we needed them! Because that's what being in a guild is about!" She took a lurching step towards him. "Even if nobody understands, they'd all be there for you, if you reached out to them!"  
  
"Shut up! I don't need any advice from you!" Laxus shouted at her. "You're not the master, Mira!"  
  
"How can you expect to rule the guild if you refuse to be a part of it?" Mira said. "That's why Master Makarov can't let you have the guild, Laxus! You've been here all your life, I don't understand why you won't be a part of the guild with us!"  
  
"Shut up!" Laxus bellowed. "I'll wipe you off the face of the earth, Mira!"  
  
"Mira, get back!" Erza shouted.  
  
Mira took another tottering step towards Laxus, because Regular Mira was crazier than Satan Soul Mira could ever be. "You can still stop," she said.  
  
"No!" Laxus roared. "No! Shut up!" He raised both hands, lightning crackling between them.  
  
"Stop, Laxus!" Freed shouted. "If you use that spell now-!"  
  
Laxus didn't listen. The lightning formed into the shape of a spear.  
  
"Mira!" Erza screamed. She tried to scrabble to her knees. "Mira, no!"  
  
"Laxus, stop, you could kill her!" Freed shouted.  
  
"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" Laxus hurled the spear at Mira. She didn't even have the strength left to dodge.  
  
The spell hit with a flash and a boom of thunder. Erza cried out. Mira had thrown her hands over her face a split second before the spell hit. She peeked out warily between her fingers, and gasped.  
  
Freed was sprawled on the ground at her feet. Smoke drifted from his charred coat and shirt.  
  
"Oh, no," Mira whispered.  
  
Laxus had gone white. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. "Freed," he said, in a very thin voice. "Oh, _shit_. Freed!"

* * *

It was decided, in light of the lack of Fairy Tail mages who weren't injured and the trouble caused to the citizens of Magnolia by Laxus's attempt to kill them all, that the Fantasia parade would be postponed by one day. (It was also universally agreed that the repair fees could come out of Laxus's bank account.) The next morning, the Fairies all gathered at the guild hall early and, for lack of anything else to do, Lucy joined them there. Mira was telling the story of the fight against Laxus when she arrived, so she settled down on the bench opposite and listened.  
  
"-I just don't understand why Freed did that," Mira said, at the end, her chin resting on her hand. Almost every inch of her skin was covered in bandages, one of her arms was in a sling and her face was dotted with colourful butterfly-pattern plasters. "He's always been Laxus's most devoted follower!"   
  
"Uh," Lucy said. "Loke and I fought him a bit before that, and I might have implied that Laxus would get arrested and publically executed if he kept going with all the attempted murder and it would be all Freed's fault if he was. Apparently he hadn't realised that before then?" Mira and Gray blinked at her. "I might have... stated that more than implied it," Lucy added. "Or... yelled it at him loudly. Maybe he felt guilty?"  
  
"Oh, maybe," Gray said.  
  
"Poor Freed," Mira said.  
  
"He was trying to kill me," Lucy pointed out defensively.  
  
Mira blew out a long breath. "I suppose that explains everything, then."  
  
"What? No, I had more questions!" Lucy said. "You guys seriously have a spell that selectively annihilates anyone you think of as an enemy?"  
  
"Fairy Law? Yes, that's what it does," Mira said. "We thought only the master could do it."  
  
"So... in the Phantom war, why was that not the first thing he did?" Lucy said. "'Oh, there're Phantoms outside. Fairy Law!'... that would have been a very short war. Why doesn't the master cast it every morning before breakfast just to be on the safe side?"  
  
"Oh, you have to really think of someone as your enemy for it to work," Mira said. "The rank-and-file mages and even the Element Four weren't really our enemies. They were just trying to get you back, or following Jose's orders. Jose was our only true enemy there, wasn't he?"  
  
Fairies clearly found it very difficult to think of anyone as an enemy.  
  
"And Laxus is a Dragon Slayer?" Lucy said. "Since when? Is everybody a Dragon Slayer?" She looked at Gray. "Did I tell you how Ryos suddenly pulled a Shadow Dragon's Roar out of nowhere back in that tower?"  
  
"Yeah, isn't Dragon Slayer magic supposed to be rare?" Gray said. "Natsu never met any others before Gajeel. At least, not that he knew about."  
  
"...maybe," Lucy theorized, "they were just avoiding him."  
  
"Excuse me," Erza called. Lucy looked around as Erza limped out of the clinic. She called out again. "Excuse me!" She leant on her crutch and stared for a moment at the Fairies. They didn't seem to have heard her. The conversation was as noisy as ever, if a little less cheerful. "Silence!" Erza roared.  
  
Everybody shut up. Macao mimed zipping his mouth closed. Erza switched back to a friendly smile.  
  
"Thanks to Porlyusica's hard work, it looks like the master's out of danger," she said. "You can stop worrying. He's going to be just fine."  
  
The Fairies burst into noisy exultation. The whoops and banging of tankards on tables was almost deafening. Lucy scrunched up her face and covered her ears with her hands. "The old man's all right, then? Huh. He's pretty resilient."  
  
"Heh. I could have told you the old man wouldn't go out that easy," Gray said.  
  
Erza raised a hand for quiet again. "Still, his years are certainly wearing on him... if he's put under too much stress his condition could worsen. I'd like everyone to keep that in mind." She smiled sweetly. The Fairies gave a collective shudder.  
  
"Are we really doing the Fantasia parade with the guild in this state?" Elfman said.  
  
"The master wanted it to go ahead, so," Mira said, and shrugged. "And you could say that at times like this, we need it more than ever."  
  
"Do the civilians still want it to go ahead?" Gray asked. "I've seen the outfit I'm expected to wear. It looks ridiculous enough without being spattered in tomatoes."  
  
"...ridiculous?" Mirajane said. "You think your costume's ridiculous?"  
  
"Yeah. Which idiot decided to dress me up as a prince?" Gray said. Mira's lower lip trembled. Tears welled up in her huge sky-blue eyes. Gray blanched. "It was you? Mira- I didn't mean it was ridiculous, it's just a bit... frilly?"  
  
Mira covered her face with her hands and wept.  
  
"Mira! Why are you crying?" Elfman demanded. "I swore I would never see my sister's tears again! Gray, how could you make her cry?"  
  
"It was only over a costume!" Gray snapped. "Stop looking if it bothers you that much!"  
  
Lucy took her drink off the table and held it to her chest a moment before Elfman upended the table leaping at Gray. "A man doesn't care if he looks ridiculous!"  
  
"Then you must be the manliest man of them all - ow!" That conversation rapidly devolved into yelling and loud crashing noises. Lucy was glad that the upended table blocked her view.  
  
"I'm looking forward to watching the parade," she volunteered.  
  
"Watching?" Mira said, and wiped away her tears. "You're taking part, silly!"  
  
"What?" said Lucy. "I'm not a member of Fairy Tail. I'm not a member of anything."  
  
"Then it's not like you have any other guild you have to stay loyal to," Mira said. "And we've had civilians join in before. Gildarts' wife took part, the first year after they were married." Good for Gildarts and his wife, then. "And one year we had a float with three dark guild mages on it - I mean, they were tied up and it was only because they'd been captured that day by coincidence, but we all thought they really added something to the festival!" She clasped Lucy's hand. "But we wanted you to join in because we wanted to show how much we appreciate all the help you gave us. We wanted to make you sort of an honorary Fairy!"  
  
It would probably be rude to say 'I don't want to be an honorary Fairy, and I think all your friendship has addled your brains.'  
  
"Also," Mira said, "everyone else is hurt, and we're already asking everyone who can still get around to take part." Lucy guessed that the 'asking' involved Mira asking nicely with a sweet smile and Elfman standing behind her.  
  
Although, from the story Mira had just told them, she probably wouldn't need Elfman's help.  
  
"It's important that we put on a good show tomorrow so the civilians will believe that we haven't been weakened by Laxus's, uh, little tantrum. That's why Erza and I agreed we'd still join in." What was their float's theme going to be? The walking dead?  
  
"It's not that I don't want to," Lucy said, although it really, really was that she didn't want to. "Gajeel, Ryos and Juvia are all planning to meet me at the station in a few hours. If they'd rather move straight on..."  
  
"But if they don't mind, would you join in?"  
  
Lucy looked at Mirajane's huge melting blue eyes and said "...kay."  
  
Mirajane made to clap her hands, remembered one was in a sling and did a happy little wiggle instead. "Oh, good! I have the perfect costume for you! You'll look so-" She stopped. Her eyes widened. The front door of the guildhall swung open, letting in a ray of sunlight blocked by a tall, broad-shouldered shadow. There was a heavy tread on the wooden boards.  
  
Lucy looked around and drew in a shocked breath. "Laxus!" She reached for her keys. Mira caught her wrist. "Wait!"  
  
"Are you crazy? He could have a vest of explosive lacrima or something!" Lucy hissed back. "He basically _is_ an explosive lacrima!"  
  
The rest of the Fairies shared her alarm.  
  
"You!"  
  
"You've got some nerve, wanting to see the master after this!"  
  
Laxus glared at them like he couldn't believe they had the nerve to get in his way. Behind the overturned table, Gray and Elfman scrambled to their feet and squared up for another fight.  
  
"Leave it," Erza said, limping in front of the angry Fairies and holding out an arm to block their path. Laxus glared at her, all fury and seething resentment.  
  
Erza met his stare quietly and said "He's in the medical office." Laxus didn't move. Erza pointed. "It's through there."  
  
"Oi! Erza!" Jet protested. Laxus brushed past her and stomped into the medical office. The door closed behind him.  
  
Erza turned away, leant on her crutch and rubbed her hands together. "Well, it's time we started preparing for the Fantasia!"  
  
"Hey," Gray said. "Are you sure it's all right to just let Laxus go in there like that?"  
  
Erza looked at Mira, who nodded. "It'll be fine," Erza said.

* * *

Laxus leant against the wall of the medical office, arms folded tightly across his chest. "What a pack of noisy troublemakers."  
  
Lying in bed against the far wall, Makarov stared at the ceiling. Laxus's mouth turned down at the corners, and he glowered at a vase of flowers on the window sill as if he found it personally offensive. After a few seconds that stretched out to an eternity, Makarov pushed himself up and shuffled to the edge of the bed to look at his grandson.  
  
"Laxus... do you understand what you've done here?" If Laxus had glared at that vase of flowers any harder, it would have quite literally burst into flame. "Look me in the eyes." Laxus met Makarov's gaze, his jaw set and his knuckles white. "Do you know what this guild is?" Makarov asked. "It's a gathering place for comrades in arms. It's an agency to take missions. For some kids who don't have any family, it's even their home. It does not belong to you." Makarov picked his words carefully. He didn't want there to be any misunderstanding; if there could be one time Laxus would understand him, he prayed it would be now. "This guild was built on the trust, and the honour, of each individual guild member, and that's how we've formed stronger bonds here than you'll find anywhere else." Laxus stared at the floor. "You violated that honour, and you put your comrades' lives in danger," Makarov said. "That is not a crime I can forgive."  
  
Laxus exhaled, slowly. "I understand." His fist clenched. He looked down at it. "I just wanted... to make the guild stronger..."  
  
Makarov blinked at him, and then blew out an exasperated breath and slid down from the bed. "You're always so awkward. Relax a little, can't you?" Laxus kept his stare on the floor. "If you do, you might find yourself seeing things you'd missed up until now, hearing words you'd never heard before..." He forced a smile. "Life is to be enjoyed, you know."  
  
Laxus still didn't raise his head.  
  
"Freed will be all right, Laxus," Makarov said. "Young people are wonderfully durable. Otherwise, I could never have brought up so many of them." And it would take more than a direct lightning strike to make Freed stop trailing after Laxus.  
  
"I know," Laxus said. He shifted his weight, shut his eyes and scrubbed a hand across his face. "He's not weak-" He broke off and kicked his heel irritably against the wall.  
  
Makarov sighed. "You know... watching you grow up was my reason for living. I didn't need you to be strong, or smart... all I wanted was for you to be happy. That would have been enough for me."  
  
A tremor ran through Laxus's shoulders.  
  
"Laxus..." Makarov's hands shook. He balled them into tight fists and drew in a deep breath. "You are hereby excommunicated from this guild."  
  
Laxus's eyes widened, and a sharp angry flush flared across his cheekbones. He swallowed. "Yeah. Sorry for the trouble." He turned sharply on his heel, his long coat snapping out behind him, and headed for the door. Makarov turned away, stared at the opposite wall and folded his arms tight, gripping the fabric of his robe until his knuckles went white.  
  
Laxus paused with his hand on the doorhandle. "Old man." His voice was surprisingly soft. "Take care of yourself."  
  
Makarov didn't turn around, so Laxus wouldn't see the tears flooding down his face. "Just go."

* * *

"Oi! Freed! I saw you moving there!" Evergreen poked him viciously in the ribs. In defiance of visiting procedure and all respect for invalids, she and Bickslow had both aggressively occupied large areas of Freed's bed: Evergreen was sitting on his pillow, leaning against the headboard and reading a magazine, while Bickslow sprawled across the foot of the bed with his arms and legs hanging off each side. "Quit playing dead already! We know you're all right! You've had worse shocks than that from sparring!"  
  
"Or walking in on Evergreen in the shower," Bickslow said. Evergreen kicked him unceremoniously off the bed. "Ow!"  
  
Freed opened his eyes. "Evergreen? Bickslow? What happened to-"  
  
Evergreen cut him off there. "First question, do you know where we are?"  
  
Freed looked around at the empty room. There were three other beds Evergreen and Bickslow could have plunked themselves down on, with curtain rails between each one. Tfhere were coarse blue sheets, flowers on the windowsill, and signs reminding the staff to wash their hands.  
  
"Magnolia Hospital," he said.  
  
"Correct! Well done! Second question," Evergreen said, "is how much do you want to get a bagel, on a scale of one to not ever shutting up about it?"  
  
Freed opened and shut his mouth for a few seconds, and then said "...what?"  
  
"You woke up briefly yesterday evening convinced that we were in Oak Town, of all places," Evergreen said, "and then you had a twenty-minute conversation with one of Bickslow's dolls about how you wanted to get a bagel. Though by conversation, I mean that you said, 'I want to get a bagel' and it said 'a bagel?' and you said 'a bagel' and your little chat only got more inane from there." Freed stared at her. "You were pretty heavily sedated."  
  
"That was so funny," Bickslow said, from the floor.  
  
"So funny, so funny!" the dolls agreed.  
  
"I don't care about bagels!" Freed said. "What happened? Is Laxus all right?" He pushed himself up, wincing.  
  
"He's... got all the same bits he had yesterday morning," said Evergreen. "We haven't seen him." Her lower lip trembled. "He's been lying low and avoiding us. What a ridiculous man!" She leant over Freed. "What happened? Mira said you jumped in front of one of Laxus's attacks!"  
  
"I failed him," Freed said, and closed his eyes. Hot tears ran down his face.  
  
Evergreen and Bickslow exchanged alarmed looks.  
  
"So you tried to commit suicide by lightning bolt?" Evergreen said. "You've got to be kidding me!"  
  
"I-" Freed hesitated, and looked down at his hands, folded in his lap. "Mira and Erza were both weakened. If either of them had been hit by that attack, they could have been killed, and then Laxus would have been arrested and - Is he all right?"  
  
Evergreen and Bickslow looked at him, then around at the hospital ward.  
  
"After he electrocuted you, he sort of... just... stopped," Evergreen said. "He stormed out of the cathedral. Erza and Mira brought you over here. We didn't see him or hear anything about him after that. This morning he showed up at the guild hall to see Makarov, and the old man told him to leave."  
  
"Leave the guild hall?" Freed said.

"No, Freed. Not the guild hall," Evergreen said.  
  
Freed shuddered and leant forward to rest his head on his knees. "This is my fault," he said. "I never wanted... to do all this-" He hiccuped. Tears started to drip down his cheeks. "I obeyed because it was Laxus's orders, but I should have realised it was a reckless plan! I let him go ahead, I helped him, and now he's been expelled from the guild-" He covered his face with his hands. "I failed him!"  
  
"Yeah," Evergreen said. "You did terribly."  
  
"You should feel really bad about that," Bickslow agreed.  
  
Freed rolled over to bury his face in the pillow, as if he meant to smother himself to death as punishment.  
  
"We're being facetious, you idiot," Evergreen said, and smacked him with her fan. She sighed. "I mean, obviously we still completely support Laxus for master, king, president and God... but it is possible that declaring war on the guild wasn't the best way to accomplish that." She screwed up her face with disgust. "I can't believe I went down to the two useless ones from Shadow Gear. And the _cat_."  
  
Bickslow cackled. "The cat!"  
  
"The cat, the cat!" the dolls sang. Evergreen yanked Freed's pillow out from under his head and threw it at Bickslow.  
  
"Ow!" said Freed.  
  
Bickslow dodged and scrambled under the bed, where Evergreen couldn't get him.  
  
"Do you know who Bickslow was beaten by?" Evergreen said. "Gray, Cana - Cana who's been in for S-rank four times and not won it - and that girl in the cat hat, I don't even know her name, she talkslike... thiiis? She stole Bickslow's dolls, ate them and then shot him _with their own lasers_."  
  
"Oh, man, Evergreen, you didn't have to tell him that," Bickslow said.  
  
"Do you want to know how he got his dolls back? He tried intimidation, and that didn't work," Evergreen said, "so he fell down on the floor and clutched her knees and cried until she let his babies go out of pure mortification." She lolled her head back, flapped her hands and did a reasonable imitation of Bickslow writhing in misery on the floor. "'My babies! My baaaaaaaabies!' Just like that." She snapped her fan open and fanned herself vigorously. "Ugh. It's disgusting to see a grown man behave like that."  
  
Bickslow poked his head out from under the bed and said "It's disgusting to see you without your makeup in the morning." He stuck out his tongue. "Naaaah!"  
  
"We're not falling for your story about saving Laxus from killing anyone, Freed," Evergreen told him. "This is obvious petty one-upsmanship. You found out how we went down and realised that the only way you could humiliate yourself more than we humiliated ourselves was by leaping directly in front of one of Laxus's attacks."  
  
"If Laxus has been exiled," Freed said, and swallowed, "I assume we share the same fate?"  
  
"We'd better," Evergreen said. "I'll quit if they don't expel me! I'm not staying without Laxus!"  
  
"We all committed the same crime, didn't we?" Bickslow said, as he crawled out from under the bed.  
  
"Didn't we? Didn't we?" the dolls agreed.  
  
"What would we do without Laxus, anyway? What would be the point in staying if he's not in the guild?" Evergreen folded her arms and scowled. "We can't be the Thunder God Tribe if we haven't got a Thunder God!"  
  
"I don't know what I'd do without Laxus," Bickslow said. "We follow him, not the old man." ("Not the old man, not the old man," the dolls chimed in.) "But relax, Evergreen. Everyone's way ticked off at us, they're bound to kick us out."  
  
"Good!" Evergreen said. She turned back to Freed. "We were only allowed in here because Mira and Erza promised we'd be on our best behaviour and Bickslow's creepy dolls wouldn't come on hospital property. Ugh. It's like being in nursery school."  
  
Freed looked at Bickslow's dolls, floating about behind his head as usual.  
  
"You don't want to know how he smuggled them in," Evergreen said. "Bickslow, throw me back that pillow." Bickslow obligingly tossed it at her face. She caught it before it could knock her glasses off, plumped it up and put it behind her back.  
  
"Evergreen, isn't that mine?" Freed said.  
  
"You woke up, you're not an invalid any more," Evergreen said, and scooped her magazine back off the nightstand. She flipped it open and stared grimly at an advert for waterproof mascara.  
  
"What do we do now, then?" Freed asked, after a few minutes.  
  
"Whatever Laxus tells us to do. When he shows up," Evergreen said. Freed opened his mouth. "So long as it's not 'rob a bank', or something, Freed, fine! God!" She realised she'd been staring at an advert for waterproof mascara for three minutes and turned the page so violently it ripped.  
  
Bickslow idly juggled his dolls.  
  
Half an hour later, the door to their ward opened. All three looked up immediately, and Bickslow sent his dolls shooting under the bed.  
  
They all heaved disappointed sighs when they saw that it wasn't Laxus. It was Makarov, leaning on a staff, with Mirajane hovering over him. She was all wrapped up in bandages and had one arm in a sling.  
  
"Time for the lecture!" Bickslow muttered under his breath.  
  
"Time for the lecture!" the dolls agreed, loudly and happily, from under the bed.  
  
Freed winced. Mirajane blinked a few times.  
  
"'Fraid so," Makarov agreed cheerily, and waved. "Hi there! How are you kids doing?"  
  
Evergreen scowled, tossed her magazine aside and folded her arms tightly across her chest. "Fine."  
  
"Are you feeling all right, Freed?" Mirajane asked, with a bright smile. He nodded shortly.  
  
Makarov looked at their expressions - Evergreen's hard and cold, Freed looking intently at his hands, and Bickslow grinning like a loon as he waited to see what Makarov would pull out - and sighed.  
  
"Do you kids understand what you've done here?"  
  
There was mutinous silence from the Thunder God Tribe.  
  
"I like to think that Fairy Tail's different to other guilds. A little special," Makarov said. "When Master Mavis founded this guild, she built it on the trust and honour of each individual guild member. That's how we've formed stronger bonds between our mages here than you'd find in any other guild... not to say that Bob and Goldmine aren't doing a good job with their own brats."  
  
Evergreen scowled and fiddled with her fan. Bickslow had stopped smiling. Freed had bowed his head.  
  
"What you and Laxus did yesterday was a violation of that honour," Makarov said. "And, worse, you put your comrades' lives in danger. That is not a crime I can forgive."  
  
"We don't want your forgiveness!" Evergreen said. "Why would we?"  
  
"You already threw Laxus out," Bickslow said. Makarov made a pained grimace. "If you weren't going to chuck us, too, we'd quit. We're not going to ask you real nicely not to kick us out."  
  
"I didn't expect you to care if I forgave you or not!" Makarov said. "Stubborn brats. Honestly..." He sighed. "I've spent long enough telling all you kids not to care what anyone else says. I'm only an old man. What does my opinion matter? All that matters is that you do what you, yourselves, believe is right." He looked at them all, in turn. "Do you believe that what you did was right?" He looked around at the hospital ward. "Where did it get you?"  
  
Evergreen didn't have an answer for that. She subsided into angry silence.  
  
"We're not going to apologise for following Laxus, either," Bickslow said, but not very loudly.  
  
"Apologise for following Laxus!" the dolls chorused. "Apologise for following Laxus!"  
  
"Augh! Babies, zip it!"  
  
"Hm," Makarov said. "Freed, didn't I ask you to make sure Laxus didn't go doing anything stupid?"  
  
Freed's face burned. "Yes... I'm sorry. I failed." He bowed his head, and therefore missed Evergreen and Bickslow staring at him as if he were a vile traitor.  
  
"Under the circumstances, it might have been better for Laxus if you three hadn't followed him," Makarov said shortly.  
  
Mirajane took a step forward. "It's not always a bad thing to cling to one person, I think," she said. "But you all have any number of people all around you. If you reach out, there's someone right there."  
  
"Unfortunately, though, you kids haven't left me much choice," Makarov said. "Freed, Evergreen, Bickslow... I hereby excommunicate you all from Fairy Tail." Mirajane bowed her head.  
  
Freed closed his eyes. "I understand."  
  
Evergreen nodded mutely. Bickslow nodded as well, his mouth drooping at the corners.  
  
"You may not know this - I don't think you three were ever around for a leaving party - but there are three rules that those mages leaving our guild are required to follow," Makarov said. "The first is that you must never reveal confidential information about the guild or the guild mages to anybody else, for as long as you live. The second is that you must never use clients or contacts that you met through being in the guild for personal gain."  
  
Standard requirements. Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen all nodded briefly.  
  
"The third rule... is that though our paths diverge here, you must continue to live out your lives with all your strength!"  
  
The three of them looked up in surprise.  
  
"You must never consider your own lives to be insignificant, and you must never, ever forget the friends that you made here!" Makarov said. "Because we will not forget _you_."  
  
Evergreen started. Freed's lower lip trembled. Tears spilled down his cheeks.  
  
"I would have liked to give you brats another chance," Makarov said. "It's a shame to lose four kids on one day. If the civilians hadn't realised how serious the trouble was... but that's neither here nor there. It'd have been too much of a risk to leave them in ignorance." He glanced at Mira, who stepped back and opened the door. "If you feel like coming back in a few months, I'll see what I can do for you. I wish you good luck."  
  
He and Mira left the Thunder God Tribe sitting silently on Freed's bed.

* * *

Outside, on the street, Makarov carefully climbed down the steps outside the hospital. His staff thumped on the stone. He let out a long sigh. Mirajane turned quickly to see if he needed help, and saw his downcast face.  
  
"It's sad that you had to do this, master," she said, "but I think it'll probably be good for them." She smiled sadly. "It's when people first feel lonely that they start to become kind."

* * *

"Lucy! ... and Gajeel and Ryos," Juvia called, as she came into the train station's cafe. She was hugging a massive cuddly toy turtle. "Juvia is so pleased to see you! How was Lucy's festival?"  
  
"About that..." Lucy said. "Okay, first question, have you noticed me buzzing? Apparently I buzz now?"  
  
"Like a bee?" Juvia said, puzzled.  
  
"She means that weird thing in her magical signature," Gajeel said.  
  
"Oh. Yes, Lucy has always done that." Juvia looked at the other two. "...Lucy has always done that, yes?"  
  
"Nope. Started a few months ago, after some job she did," Gajeel said. He was stretched out across the bench on the opposite side of the booth, boots on the table, eating nuts out of a paper bag. Unless they were bolts. Lucy had never been able to keep those two straight.  
  
"I ate part of a chthonian," Lucy said. "Don't make that face. It tried to eat me first!" She gestured at the other two. "Can you believe these two saw me come back from a mission all weird and just didn't mention it?"  
  
"Hey! How were we supposed to know you weren't doing it on purpose?" Gajeel demanded.  
  
"Why would I do that on purpose?" Lucy flared up. "Ugh! Just... please don't worry, Juvia, but can you guys tell me if it gets any worse?"  
  
"It hasn't since Juvia has known Lucy," Juvia said, frowning. "Juvia will pay close attention." Ryos was watching Lucy with interest, as if she were a new science project.  
  
"Thanks. Second question, is Lahar with you?"  
  
Juvia shook her head. "We separated in Hargeon Town this morning."  
  
"...this morning?" Lucy said, and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Lieutenant Lahar stayed at a colleague's, and offered to pay for my hotel room. He is very gentlemanly." There was a long pause, before she pouted. "Juvia would not mind that much if he wasn't."  
  
"Ugh. Didn't need to know that," Gajeel said.  
  
"Aw," Lucy said, and patted Juvia on the shoulder. "There, there. But seriously, Laxus just tried to murder everyone in Magnolia and Fairy Tail's trying so hard to brush it under the rug, I didn't want to ruin their hard work by talking about it in front of your cop boyfriend."  
  
Juvia nearly dropped her turtle. "What? Oh no! Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine. Listen, you do know about Makarov's grandson Laxus, right?" She told them the story. It took nearly a quarter of an hour, because she kept having to shush Gajeel for interrupting. "... and then Makarov officially threw him out this morning, so hopefully he's miles away by now."  
  
"How the hell is that guy a Dragon Slayer?" Gajeel said. "That's impossible!"  
  
"Yeah, because you guys learned it from being raised by actual dragons, right? That's the qualification?" Lucy said. "But unless Makarov's been hiding it really well none of the Dreyars are dragons."  
  
Gajeel cursed and slouched down on his bench, muttering something about secret dragon slayer training waste of time grrr.  
  
"Ryos might really be the only sane Dragon Slayer there is," Lucy said, and turned to him. "Ryos, please promise you won't turn evil or crazy on me."  
  
"I'll try not to," Ryos said.  
  
"How was the Secret Dragon Slayer Training, anyway?"  
  
"There were chili peppers," Ryos said.  
  
Lucy blinked, and mouthed _did you eat them?_ at him. Ryos waited a second, until Gajeel was distracted fishing out the last nut from his paper bag, and then mimed lifting something to his mouth, palming it and tossing it casually over his shoulder. "Good!" Lucy said. "Uh... Juvia? Are you okay?"  
  
Juvia's huge, terrified eyes were barely peeking out from over her giant cuddly toy turtle. "Lucy could have been killed!"  
  
"...I wasn't, though," Lucy said. "That counts, right? I get points for that?"  
  
Juvia hugged her turtle and shut her eyes. "Lucy is right. Lucy is able to look after herself and clearly since she is all right now, there was nothing for Juvia to worry about..." She opened her eyes. "Juvia will never let Lucy leave her sight again!"  
  
"Juvia. Breathe," Lucy said. "But, okay, seriously, the important thing is that they rescheduled the parade to tonight, and they want me to be in it, and I don't want to. Can you guys tell them that we urgently have to be on the other side of the country or something?"  
  
"Why do they want Lucy to be in their parade?" Juvia said.  
  
"Because I helped out and they want to show their appreciation and they've run out of people who haven't been obviously punched in the face," Lucy said. "I'm not even in Fairy Tail! I don't want to stand on their floats wearing a silly costume! I'll look... think about how that'll look! What if people see me?" Dressing up in miniskirts and tank tops was one thing, because she looked cute, but dancing around in a silly costume on a float for Fairy Tail?  
  
"Silly costume?" Gajeel said.  
  
"Juvia thinks Lucy should accept their offer," Juvia said. "They are trying to be nice, and she does not think they have ulterior motives. It can also only endear you to the Fairies, and Juvia knows Lucy has been trying to achieve a polite business relationship with them since she acquired the key of the Lion."  
  
"Yeah, and, I want to see Ashley in a silly costume," said Gajeel.  
  
"Um, in the interests of self-preservation, I'm going to agree with Gajeel," Ryos said, "but it does sound like they're just trying to be nice. You should join in. We'll all watch."

"And laugh," Gajeel said. "Gihihihi!"   
  
Lucy stared at them, speechless with betrayal. You could always rely on your teammates to stab you in the back.  
  
"Oh, fine," she said. "You guys are jerks."

* * *

Half an hour before the first floats rolled out, the guildhall was in chaos as the Fairies struggled with fastening the zippers on their costumes and covering up the worst bruises with inches-deep makeup. Outside, the floats were being hurriedly put together. There hadn't been enough space to do it inside. Mira's float had a huge artificial lily in the middle, which Lucy thought Mira was meant to emerge from like some sort of classical goddess. Her band were setting up their instruments around the base. Mickey Chickentiger was tuning her guitar, while another girl was doing scales on her flute, and Mikuni Shin and another guy set up the drumkit. Mikuni had practically crawled under it to... attach... pedals? Drum things? Lucy didn't even know.  
  
"This is great! I thought we were gonna miss the parade for sure!" Mickey hollered at her bandmates. Mikuni Shin jumped and hit his head on the cymbal.  
  
"My face is fine!" Jet said, swatting one of the Fairy girls away as she attacked him with a powder puff.  
  
"Jet, sit still!" Levy called to him, from where she was rehearsing her high-kicks for the Miss Fairy Tail float. "The lights are going to be bright. You don't want to look washed out, do you?"  
  
"...No, Levy," Jet agreed meekly.  
  
"Breathe out, Bisca!" Cana ordered, struggling with the laces on Bisca's corset.  
  
"Can't breathe out more," Bisca wheezed.  
  
"Then stop eating so much cake!" Cana said. "Tell Alzack not to take you out to dinner so much-"  
  
Bisca wheezed indignantly and flailed at her. "-oh, whoops," Cana said, "I had the laces tangled up. You can start breathing again now."  
  
Those three were all wearing tiny miniskirts, thigh-high stockings and corsets for the Miss Fairy Tail float. Master Makarov was definitely a pervert.

Erza was talking to Gray, while she helped him get into his costume. She stopped fiddling with a zip to press the balls of her hands against her eyes. Lucy caught the tail-end of what she was saying. "-just don't know what's-"

"He's been in the guild for six years. An S-ranker for two," Gray said. "I don't think anyone could hold down that many full-time jobs."

"I suppose," Erza said. "How likely could it be, that he really did have an- Lucy?"

"An Lucy?" Gray said, and saw Lucy coming. His face closed up. "Hi."

"What are you doing?"

"Helping Gray into his costume," Erza said. "Actually, it's helpful that you're here now. This part needs two pairs of hands." She indicated for Lucy to grab the other side of the jacket. "Pull down the toggle - no, to the left, inside the jacket-"

Gray wriggled. Erza smacked him.

"Why does it have to be so complicated?" Lucy said.

"So that he can't get out of it in the middle of the parade," Erza said.

Lucy giggled. Gray scowled at her. Lucy put on a serious face and fastened the bits Erza told her to until Gray was effectively padlocked into his costume, and then stood back while Erza literally padlocked him into his costume.

"This isn't necessary," Gray said.

"That was what we thought last year," Erza said. "Do I have to remind you what happened last year?"

Lucy hid a giggle behind her hand.

"Thanks for the help," Gray said, and stomped off, as well as anyone can stomp while fastening into a froofy prince outfit. For her part, Lucy was wearing a leotard and spangly gauze. Mira had gone with a starry theme.

Erza perched on the edge of her float and brought up the control screen for her requip arsenal.

"...wow, that's a lot of swords," Lucy said. Erza flipped to the second page, which contained an equally terrifying number of bladed implements.  
  
"I'm just selecting the weapons I'll use for my display," she said.  
  
"Oh, for, like, maximum intimidation?" Lucy said.  
  
"Hmm. A little, I suppose," Erza said, glancing away from the display screen. "It's difficult. Many of my favourite blades will need care before I can use them again. I was considering doing a duplication spell on the two swords designed to match my Heaven's Wheel armour, but of course those two have a very thin and exposed tang, which isn't the fashion at the moment."  
  
"Uh...huh," Lucy said.  
  
"I had one blade which would have been ideal," Erza said, "but unfortunately that was the one I was wielding when you dropped the market pavilion on me."  
  
"Oh. You remember that," Lucy said. So she also remembered that Lucy'd yelled at her about Sho.  
  
There was a long and supremely awkward pause.

"Are you mad?" Lucy asked.  
  
"I wouldn't fault you for dropping the pavilion on me. It was a sensible use of the environment and it didn't do me any serious harm," Erza said, because she was some sort of robot monster.  
  
"I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings. It was a cheap trick," Lucy said. She twisted her fingers together. "But... I'd still do it again."  
  
Erza's eyes narrowed. Her mouth set into a hard line.  
  
"Because you were chasing me with a sword and I'd rather hurt your feelings than have you stab me," Lucy said. "Although..." She looked at Erza's expression. "...I guess I only delayed the stabbing a little?" There was a brief pause. Lucy squirmed under Erza's flat, unblinking stare. "I'm sorry, but... I'm really not a nice person! I never said I was!"  
  
"Are you a _good_ person?" Erza asked.  
  
"Probably not," Lucy said, with a sigh.  
  
Erza raised one hand and flexed her fingers. As the bright lights of the floats snapped on, they gleamed on her metal gauntlets.  
  
"You're going to punch me, aren't you," Lucy said, with grim foreboding.  
  
"That's how we do things in Fairy Tail," Erza said.  
  
"You guys are crazy," Lucy said, and screwed up her eyes. "Not in the face!" She hunched up her shoulders defensively and waited for Erza to smack her into the floor.  
  
The blow didn't come. She cracked one eye open and peeked out. Erza was just watching her squirm.  
  
"Okay, this is just _mean_ ," Lucy said.  
  
"I owe you some thanks," Erza said. "Back at the Tower of Heaven. When Je - that thing first attacked. You inflicted some damage on it, didn't you?"  
  
It took Lucy a second to remember. "Oh, yeah. I summoned Aquarius and she knocked him - sorry, 'it' - into a wall. It didn't seem like it hurt him that much, though." She scuffed the toe of her boot across the floor.  
  
"It did. And if that thing hadn't already been injured, I might not have won," Erza said. "Which is why I'm not going to hit you now."  
  
"Oh. Thank you," said Lucy.  
  
Erza's eyes darkened. "But never mention Sho like that again."  
  
Lucy meekly mimed zipping her mouth shut, though of course she would in a second if it was a choice between that and getting run through like a kebab. She really wasn't a very nice person. She changed the subject. "How are Wally and Millianna doing, anyway?"  
  
The harshness faded out of Erza's face, though the corners of her mouth just turned down further. "It's very slow. It's likely that nothing will be done until - and unless - the Council can be reformed. They're keeping cheerful, though. They don't seem to realise the severity of their situation." She sighed. "There's a lot of confusion over what they can actually be charged with. They were throwing treason around, but we don't actually know which nation either of them should belong to. Wally doesn't remember where he came from and Millianna was born on the island, which no longer exists." She rubbed her forehead wearily.  
  
"I hope the Council gets back together soon, then," Lucy said.  
  
Erza murmured some thanks.  
  
A whistle blew. Cana had climbed onto her float, so everyone could see her. "Ten minutes, everyone!"  
  
"Thank you, Cana!" Mira called back, and ran outside to her float.  
  
"I had best get to my float. Please be sure to put on a good show!" Erza said, and hurried off. Good show. Right. Lucy looked at her keys.  
  
Fireworks exploded in the night sky overhead as the floats rolled out onto Magnolia's main street. The pavements were already packed with people, some of them even dressed up as Fairy Tail mages. They burst into applause as the parade rolled into sight. Four girls wearing bikinis and fairy wings led the way, because Makarov was a colossal pervert. There was one float shaped like a giant fish, with a model of the blue flying cat sitting on top of it eating another fish. Three Fairies danced around inside the fish's mouth, dressed as... a carrot? A clove of garlic? Lucy didn't even know. Clouds of sparkles and soap bubbles in the shapes of hearts and the Fairy Tail guild mark drifted around the parade. Macao shot purple fire into the sky and shaped it into a heart, and Wakaba fired a smoke arrow through it. Levy, Cana and Bisca did a dance routine, waving banners, and winked and blew kisses to the crowd. Gray created a soaring castle out of ice. Mirajane emerged from her lily to rapturous applause and screams of "Mira! Marry me!" She smiled and raised a hand to the ecstatic crowd in graceful acknowledgement, and then ruined it completely by transforming into a giant lizard. She clambered down the float to the microphone stand, nearly knocking over Mikuni's drumkit, and transformed back into her real form to take up the microphone. She lifted it to her mouth.  
  
"Hi, Magnolia Town!" They screamed adulation. Mira smiled and waved. "I've got a song for you! It's called R.P.G. - Rockin' Playing Game!" She gestured to her band. "Hit it!" They burst into a quick rock song. Mira's clothes glowed and transformed into a black crop top and leather miniskirt. The crowd roared so loudly they almost drowned out the song. Erza's float was designed simply, like a stage. She was dressed like a valkyrie in a golden breastplate, full red and gold skirts and a winged headdress. A wheel of swords spun around her.  
  
Master Makarov was on the last float, heralded by shouts of "There's the master!" and "Hey, old man!" He was wearing a bow-tie bigger than his head and a hat with kitty ears. He hopped from foot to foot and waved down at the crowd.  
  
Lucy was walking behind Erza's float. She really should do something.  
  
First, she was going to stop walking. "Open, Gate of the Chariot! Auriga!" An ornate two-wheeled chariot materialised in front of her. Auriga's torso grew out of the front like a figurehead on a ship. He flicked the reins as Lucy hopped aboard. "Where would you like to go today, ma'am?"  
  
"Follow those floats," Lucy ordered.  
  
Auriga looked at the floats rolling through Magnolia with all the speed of a glacier, sighed a little and said "As you wish, ma'am."  
  
Lucy spun her keyring in her hand. Who to start with? "Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!"  
  
Taurus appeared in a flash of light. "Miss Lucy's body is the-" Then he got distracted by a buxom woman in the crowd. "Phwoar!"  
  
"Oi!" Lucy grabbed him by the collar around his neck and yanked on it so the cowbell jangled. "Don't be a pervert when I'm trying to show you off!" She let go and pointed up at the haze of glitter and soap bubbles. "Taurus! Axe Aldebaran!" Taurus swept his axe through the air, catching the drifting decorations on the flat of the blade, and then spun the axe in his hands. The glitter and bubbles wrapped around the blade and transformed into a whirlwind. With a cry of exertion, Taurus swung his axe up and fired the spell into the sky. The column of glitter rose high into the sky and collapsed, showering the crowd in sparkles.  
  
"Nice one, Taurus!" Lucy said, and clapped her hands. "Close, Gate of the Bull!" With one last wave to the buxom woman in the crowd, Taurus disappeared. Who next? It wasn't one of Cancer's contracted days, and "Open, Gate of the Waterbearer! Aquarius!" A flash of starlight coalesced into Aquarius levitating in midair with her water jar under her arm. Her eyes opened. Her mouth twisted into a snarl. "Close, Gate of the Waterbearer!" Lucy said, before Aquarius could do anything or make a snide comment about Lucy not having a boyfriend, and the mermaid vanished with a pop. "Open, Gate of the Little Bear! Ursa Minor!" The audience had protested Aquarius's abrupt disappearance, but that changed to a squeal when Ursa Minor dropped into Lucy's arms. She held the little bear up. Ursa Minor - who really was just an animate teddy bear - blinked his big liquid dark eyes and sucked on one of his paws. Every woman in the crowd, and a good portion of the men, spontaneously melted into a puddle. If Lucy kept Ursa Minor out too long, though, Ursa Major would turn up and start yelling at her for keeping Ursa Minor up past his bedtime and also being a total buttass.  
  
"Close, Gate of the Little Bear! Open, Gate of the Clock!" Horologium materialised, his arms and legs and head popped out, and he announced "It is now thirty-two minutes past seven in the evening!"  
  
"Close, Gate of the Clock!" Lucy said, and spun her keyring in her hand. It wasn't one of the three days a month that she could summon Lyra, and summoning Andromeda would be a bit of a risk. What if she turned into someone's dead relative? That would be awkward, and Lucy didn't necessarily want it getting out that she had an Andromeda key now anyway. Serpens was incredibly pretty, in Lucy's opinion, but for some reason other people tended to go 'ew! Get it away from me!' instead. Lucy hoped that didn't hurt Serpens's feelings. She reached a decision.  
  
"Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!"  
  
Loke appeared in a flash of supernova light and sprang up into the chariot. "Good evening! Your prince is here, Lucy!" He noticed the crowd and turned to offer them all a wave and a dazzling smile.  
  
"Show-off," Lucy said. "Do something impressive!"  
  
"Aren't I impressive enough just standing here?" Loke asked. He slung an arm around Lucy's shoulders and raised a hand, fingers spread. Against a wall over the crowd's head, a projection appeared of a sea of flowers and, in the middle, in thick dark letters, MARRY ME, LUCY!  
  
"Say yes!" someone in the crowd hollered.  
  
Lucy put a hand flat on Loke's face and pushed him away. "That's enough out of you now!"  
  
The parade was moving slowly past Magnolia Hospital. Lucy glanced up at the windows and thought she saw a flicker of green hair.  
  
"Everybody please shush now! I've got another song and I want everyone to hear it!" Mira shouted. Though she was several floats away, Lucy could hear her clearly over her microphone. The crowd obediently quieted down. "This is one of my favourites. I like to sing it when I see someone setting off on a new adventure... Anyway, you might know it already, it's called Snow Fairy!"  
  
One of her guitarists started to play a simple tune, and then after a few bars the other guitarist and the flutist broke in to make the song quicker and more energetic. Loke had raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know she meant to sing this one..."  
  
"What's the matter?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Oh, yeah! Now can you hear the voice that's calling out to you?" Mira sang.  
  
"Oh, yeah!" the crowd roared.  
  
Though I know its shouts have caused its overuse?"  
  
"Oh, yeah!" Loke shouted along with everyone else.  
  
"But will you stay until your heart can hear it through?"  
  
"Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!"  
  
"What's special about this particular song?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Don't worry about it," Loke said, which wasn't an answer. Lucy hopped down from the chariot and ran on ahead, weaving through the Fairies until she could see Mira's float.  
  
"-when you're not here to share your laughter with me, I just can't find my inspiration, but it's-" Mira sang out, and eighty voices rose behind hers like a tide as they burst into the chorus. "Snowing, keep going, be honest and smile as we're approaching, evoking, the clock to keep repeating over!" Mira spun her finger in the air. "But Fairy, where you going, I'm holding all the light to your way!"  
  
Oh. Right. Lucy's face cracked involuntarily into a smile.  
  
Mira didn't need the microphone any more. Her voice couldn't have carried over the roar. She tossed it aside and raised her hand, index finger pointed at the sky. Every Fairy followed suit, even the master; Makarov jabbed his finger at the sky, clenched his other fist and stared at the crowd like he was going into battle. The shout rang through the streets of Magnolia.  
  
"This light will shine upon a brand new day!"

* * *

A few hours after the Fantasia, Freed was sitting on the hospital bed pulling on his boots. The three of them planned to be out of Magnolia by morning. Where they would go after that... Bickslow had suggested that they throw a handful of dirt in the air and go whichever way it blew, and while Freed and Evergreen usually hated to follow any suggestion of Bickslow's, they didn't actually have any better ideas.  
  
There was a sharp rat-a-tat on the door.  
  
"We're leaving, aren't we? Quit bugging us!" Evergreen shouted. The door swung open. Evergreen gaped. Freed yelped and dropped his boot.  
  
"Boss!" Bickslow said. "Boss, boss!" the dolls mimicked.  
  
Laxus looked down at the floor and raised a hand. "Hey-"  
  
He didn't get any further than that before three enthusiastic tacklehugs pinned him to the door.

  
* * * 

 

A/N: Mira's song is the first anime opening, 'Snow Fairy' by Funkist, translated into English by youtube user LanceChui.

  
The trouble with writing an AU that sticks close to canon is that everyone knows in advance what the heartwarming moments are supposed to be, so I have to try to change them up. I'm not sure how well it worked.


	27. Lucy Gets Kidnapped. Again.

A/N: This chapter comes with a drinking game! Every time somebody yells somebody else's name, take a sip!  
  
(Don't play the drinking game. You will die.)

 

* * *  
  


Lucy leant on the terrace railing and breathed in deep. Below her, a stone wall nearly invisible under a cascade of trellised roses fell ten feet to a flower garden. A cloud of rich, heavy scent drifted on the clear night air. Crocus City, Lucy decided, was rapidly becoming her favourite place in the world. Every street was lined with flowers, there was every kind of fashion store you could want, there were markets that sold books right on the street and the hotel they were staying in, the Saffron, was incredible. (And, even better, Juvia was treating Lucy to the stay.) They had a cocktail party in the main reception room every evening, full of young socialites. Some of them were even good-looking!  
  
So far, though, nobody had tried to murder Lucy and take her keys, and that was really the whole reason they were there. It was a fun holiday, but not a very productive one.  
  
Lucy straightened up, yawned and went back inside. A woman leaning against the bar looked her up and down as she came through the doors. She was probably jealous, Lucy decided. Lucy was wearing a long blue gown with a full skirt that perfectly concealed the whip and knuckleduster strapped to her thigh, and her keys hung from a gold chain belt around her waist. She looked cute as hell. The woman by the bar, on the other hand, looked like her dress was made out of a dead swan and there hadn't been quite enough feathers to cover her chest. People were staring.  
  
The woman herself, though, was still staring at Lucy. A faint prickle of unease ran down the back off Lucy's neck. She went to find Juvia.

* * *  
  
Juvia was in the bathroom, leaning close to the mirror to reapply her mascara. That done, she slid her makeup bag back into her torso and her dress closed over it with a pop. The other woman in the room hurriedly excused herself. As Juvia washed her hands, the door swung open again. "Juvia!"  
  
Juvia looked up with a start. "Lucy! You surprised me!"  
  
Lucy hiked up her skirt, unstrapped her knuckleduster and slid her fingers through it. "I think there's an enemy here. We should sneak out the back way."  
  
Juvia was staring at her.  
  
"What?" Lucy said.  
  
"It is a very good imitation," Juvia said, "but Lucy's own magical signature is very distinctive, and Juvia does not think it would be easy to imitate." Lucy took a quick step backwards, reaching for the door. Juvia caught her wrist. "You are not Lucy! Who are you?"

* * *

"Lucy!"  
  
Lucy turned around with a relieved smile. "Juvia! I was looking for you. There's this woman wearing a dead swan-" She looked around, but couldn't find her. "Well, she was here a minute ago and she was giving me a really funny look!"  
  
"Juvia has also encountered a suspicious person. But they were not wearing a dead swan," Juvia said. "Therefore, there must be more than one enemy." She looked around. "Juvia does not think any of these people can be trusted. We should find somewhere less densely populated."  
  
Lucy swallowed. "Okay. If you say so." It would be easier to fight without civilians in the way. However many enemies there were out there, her and Juvia together would be more than a match for them. She wrapped one hand around her keyring and linked the other into Juvia's. "Let's go!"  
  
Juvia pulled Lucy out of the reception hall, through the hotel lobby and out down the steps into the lamplit street. "This way!" Lucy assumed Juvia knew where she was going.

* * *

A woman stumbled into the washroom and leant over the sink for a moment before groaning and splashing water on her face. She rubbed her eyes, lifted her head to look in the mirror and shrieked. Juvia was standing behind her, frozen into solid ice. Her right arm, reaching out, had been broken off halfway down the forearm. The woman fled the room, screaming.  
  
One by one, the hot taps exploded off the walls. The tiling cracked. A flying faucet shattered a window. Searingly hot water sprayed from the broken taps, filling the room with steam. Outside, it began to rain.

* * *

Juvia was hurrying on ahead, scanning the streets ahead. She turned away wherever she saw lights or late-night revellers. Lucy followed after her, looking over her shoulder for pursuers. Raindrops spattered on the back of her neck. Lucy held out a hand and felt the light drizzle patter on her palm.  
  
"Would you pass me your keys for a moment, Lucy?" Juvia asked.  
  
Lucy scrunched up her face. "Why?"  
  
"I'd like to see them," Juvia said.  
  
Lucy frowned. "I'd rather hang onto them in case we get jumped suddenly. What's the matter?" When had Juvia learned to use first-person pronouns, anyway?  
  
Juvia didn't answer. Lucy blinked and rubbed a hand across her face. The rain was just getting heavier and heavier. Her hair was already plastered to her forehead. The sky had been clear ten minutes ago.  
  
"What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing," Juvia said. "Everything is fine."  
  
The rain was coming down in one unbroken sheet. It rattled on the metal lids of trash cans and battered at the windows of the shops around. Lucy couldn't see more than forty feet in any direction before the rain blurred everything into indistinguishable grey. Distant lights rippled as if they were underwater. Lucy looked at the rain, and then at Juvia's impassive expression, and sudden sharp fear twisted her stomach into a knot. There was something slightly off about Juvia's face. Nothing Lucy could exactly describe, but...  
  
Lucy licked her lips. "So, uh, do you want to talk about Lahar?"  
  
"No," Juvia said, instead of immediately going into an adoring funk.

It wasn't Juvia.  
  
Lucy screamed, pivoted, and slammed a kick into the fake Juvia's ribs. The fake's body didn't ripple and reform the way Juvia's would; she staggered backwards and tumbled to the ground. Lucy took off at a dead run.  
  
Crap. She didn't know how to get back to the hotel!

* * *

Three hotel staff, alerted by the shrieking, hurried towards the ladies' washroom, and a blast of water hurled them out of Juvia's way. She stormed past them and out into the street.  
  
"Lucy! Lucy!" There was no response. " _Lucy_!"  
  
The rain poured down.

* * *

Lucy ran. Her high-heeled sandals slipped and skidded on the wet pavement. She cursed and, hopping from foot to foot, yanked her sandals off and threw them away. Where was the hotel? She could barely see anything through the rain! Where was Juvia? Nothing could have happened to Juvia, could it?  
  
A light flashed, close by, and she only realised it was a magical seal a second before she felt the shockwave. She staggered sideways, arms flung wide to keep her balance.  
  
Another one went off, right in front of her. Lucy skittered backwards with a shriek. The momentary illumination had showed... an arrow? Lucy bolted in the opposite direction, breath sawing in her throat. Another arrow hit a few feet from her right, and the shockwave knocked her to the ground. She threw out her hands to break her fall. The impact on the rough stone tore layers of skin from her palms.  
  
The shots were coming from overhead, a roof or something, from the angle with which that arrow had struck the pavement. She looked around wildly, but she couldn't see the attacker through the driving rain. She needed to find cover!  
  
Another arrow struck to her right. Lucy squawked and raced in the opposite direction. An open doorway loomed out of the darkness. That would do! Lucy dashed through it. Beyond the archway, the walls opened out on either side. "Hello!" Lucy yelled, and the cry echoed back at her. A vast, empty space. Lucy skidded to a stop, spun and drew her keys from her belt. In the open doors, an incredibly tall gangly figure was silhouetted by the dim streetlamp glow from outside. He stepped in and slammed the doors behind him. The hall was plunged into darkness.  
  
"Who are you?" Lucy shouted. The lights came on with a dull electric buzz. Realisation dawned. Why would any building have its doors wide open at this time of night? She was so stupid! She'd let herself be herded in here! She spun around.  
  
It was a big empty building with a high, domed roof. Crates, fold-away tables and a pallet of huge water-cooler refill bottles were stacked against the walls, where posters advertised swap meets, chess tournaments and a Friday night disco for under-sixteens. There were bathroom doors, labelled with stick people, and another door marked 'Community Kitchen - Fire Exit Through Here'. Even if she were interested in escaping, Lucy would have to race all the way across the hall to reach that one, and probably get an arrow in her back for her trouble. Fifteen feet up, just under the lights, there was a catwalk cantilevered out from the wall, and there, leaning casually on the railing and looking down at Lucy, was the woman with the dead swan for a dress.  
  
Lucy could have guessed that, really. She backed away, with a glance towards the ominous figure by the doors. With the lights on, he was revealed to be a gloomy-looking guy wearing a horse costume. Uh....  
  
"Who _are_ you guys?" she demanded. "Apart from fashion's greatest victims? Open, Gate of the Chisel, Caelum!" She grabbed Caelum out of the air and held it by the hilt and the ring around the handle, ready to deflect an attack.  
  
"Hello there, Lucy, _sweetie_ ," the woman said. "I'm Angel. Haven't you been looking for me?"  
  
What? Was this definitely the mage who'd killed Karen Lilica, then? How did she know Lucy had been trying to lure her out? "Gate of the Archer, close!" The horse guy disappeared. Behind the dissipating cloud of vapor he left behind, the door swung open. "Hi! Sorry we're late!"  
  
Lucy gaped, as she watched herself walk in through the door. "What the hell?"  
  
Angel scowled down at the imitation Lucy. "You didn't do a very good impression of that water woman."  
  
"No fair!" the imitation Lucy said. "She was too strong. That's your problem, not ours. We got her here, didn't we?"  
  
"Gemini?" Lucy guessed. "The Twins?" She moved sideways, slowly, gaze flicking between Angel and the fake Lucy as she moved closer to the pallet of water bottles.  
  
"That's right! Well done, Lucy!" Angel cooed. "Are you surprised that I can open two gates of the zodiac at the same time?” She gestured to Gemini. "These little cuties have the power to flawlessly imitate any human's appearance, abilities and thoughts." Their thoughts? That must be how she'd known about Lucy's plan, and to separate Lucy from Juvia!  
  
"What point is there turning into me?" Lucy demanded. "You've already got all my information, haven't you? Who are you trying to fool?" She was close enough now. She spun and slashed clean through the top of the pallet of water bottles. Water spattered everywhere. Before Angel or the Gemini-Lucy could react, Lucy plunged Aquarius's key into one of the bottles. "Open, Gate of the Waterbearer! Aquarius!" She darted back into the shadow of a crate as a flash of light coalesced into Aquarius, meaning that Gemini-Lucy was the first Lucy Aquarius saw.  
  
"What was that crap with the parade for?" Aquarius shouted, rounding on Gemini-Lucy. "You summoned me for three seconds and dismissed me again? What a waste of my time!"  
  
Gemini-Lucy looked at the furious mermaid and smiled smugly. "Aquarius. Calm down."  
  
"I don't need you to tell me what to do!" Aquarius shouted, and swung her urn up above her head. Gemini's eyes widened.  
  
"Stop!”  
  
Angel raised a gate key, eyes crinkling with suppressed mirth. "Open, Gate of the Scorpion," she said. "Scorpio!" Aquarius looked up sharply.  
  
In a flash of light and a blast of stinging sand, a new stellar spirit appeared, a tall man with red and white hair. There was a gun barrel at the end of the metallic tail that curved over his head. He threw out both hands, middle fingers curled in, index and little fingers extended like scorpions' pincers. "We are! Yeah!"  
  
Aquarius dropped her urn and clasped both hands under her cheek. "Scorpio!"  
  
"What?" Lucy said.  
  
"Are we feeling fine, Aquarius?"  
  
Aquarius glommed on to his side and hung on like a lamprey eel. "I was... so lonely without you..."  
  
"He's... he can't be..." Lucy stuttered.  
  
"My boyfriend," Aquarius cooed, both hands pressed to her cheeks.  
  
"Pleased to meet you, Aquarius's owner!" Scorpio said to Gemini-Lucy, and then caught sight of Real Lucy over his shoulder. His head flicked back and forth between them. "Whichever of you it is, hi!" He made a friendly pincer gesture. Aquarius looked over at Lucy, back to Gemini-Lucy, and back to Lucy again before she said under her breath "Ugh, there's two of them." Her eyes narrowed. Her voice dropped to a hiss. "Neither of you better say anything funny in front of Scorpio, unless you want to be a drowned corpse!"  
  
Scorpio smiled blithely and obliviously. Aquarius latched back on to his arm. "Darling? Shall we go and get dinner?"  
  
"We found a beautiful restaurant lately, where you can see the aurora," Scorpio told her. "We hope you won't mind if the two of us step out, will you, Angel?"  
  
Angel waved a hand negligently, eyes closed. "Feel free."  
  
"Aquarius! You can't just _leave_!" Lucy shouted. "I'm in the middle of a fight!"  
  
"Bug one of the others about it!" she snapped. "This is why you can't get a boyfriend. Annoying behaviour like this-" Her voice faded out as they disappeared.  
  
She was so useless! Lucy ground her teeth. If she survived this, she was going to flush Aquarius's key down a toilet!  
  
"A little girl who doesn't even know about the relationships between the spirits has no hope of defeating me," Angel said. Gemini-Lucy laughed.  
  
"Caelum," Lucy said, before either of them got any ideas. "Charge!"  
  
A faint green glow appeared at the end of Caelum's barrel. Gemini-Lucy tensed as the barrel swivelled between her and Angel. Angel laughed. "Fire away!"  
  
"You've got Aries's key, haven't you?" Lucy said.  
  
"Of course," Angel said. "My spoils of war. She's pathetic, but she has her uses."  
  
"Want to swap for Aquarius?"  
  
"Hmm," Angel said, and tapped her fingers on the railing. "I don't really see the value in swapping, when I can just kill you and take all your keys. Besides, from what I've seen, you would have to pay someone to take Aquarius off your hands."  
  
That was true. Lucy had only been stalling for time, anyway.  
  
"Caelum! Target and fire!" She pointed at Angel. Caelum's barrel spun. It fired almost straight upwards. The blast blew clear through the catwalk. Angel threw herself aside just in time. The beam punched through the ceiling and roof out to the night sky. Angel covered her head with her arms as fragments of wooden rafters, chunks of plaster and a strobe light smashed into the catwalk around her. When Angel scrambled up, her teeth bared, her feathered dress was dirty and crumpled, but she was unhurt. Well, step one of Plan B had worked, anyway.  
  
"Caelum! Sword Form!" Lucy snatched Caelum up again and spun her keyring in her free hand.  
  
"Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!"  
  
Loke appeared in a flash of supernova light. "Good evening! Lucy, you look beautiful!" He glanced around and saw Gemini-Lucy. "You're very pretty too, but just not quite as lovely as the real thing," he told her, with a charitable smile.  
  
"Oh, dear," Angel said. "You know I have Aries, and yet you've called out the Lion? Isn't that a little foolhardy?"  
  
Loke's eyes widened.  
  
"This is the woman who killed Karen Lilica," Lucy said. Loke didn't say that he'd told her not to try chasing this woman down. Lucy appreciated that.  
  
"Gemini, withdraw," Angel said. The fake Lucy disappeared. "Open, Gate of the Ram! Aries!"  
  
In a puff of pink smoke, Aries appeared.  
  
"I'm sorry, Leo..." She twisted one hand in the hem of her dress and raised the other nervously to her mouth. Lucy was startled by how young and slender she was, like a wisp of smoke in a short, fluffy dress. Her hair was pink and fluffy, and curled almost like Juvia's. Tiny horns poked through her hair. Her eyes were huge and dark and scared like a kicked spaniel's. She really didn't look like a fighter at all.  
  
"I'm sorry, Loke," Lucy said.  
  
Loke pressed his lips together and nodded curtly. "Don't apologise, Lucy," he said. "Aries might be an old friend of mine, but if our owners differ, we are enemies. A stellar spirit must always fight for their master."  
  
"Even if we owe that enemy a great debt, for our master's sake, we must defeat them," Aries said, in a very small voice.  
  
Loke nodded. "That's our pride as stellar spirits!"  
  
"Wait, what? Loke, I think you're missing something," Lucy said. She hiked up her skirt, one handed, and unsnapped her whip from her thigh. "I didn't mean for you to fight Aries." Caelum in one hand, her whip in the other, she charged Aries. "Go get Angel, you idiot!"  
  
And Aries _really_ wasn't a combat spirit, because when she saw Lucy charging her with a whip she squeaked and raised her arms to protect herself. When Lucy lashed out, her whip locked tight around Aries and bound her arms to her chest. Lucy tackled Aries to the ground, pinning her down with Caelum across her chest. Aries shrieked and tried to wriggle free. She kicked out. "Wool Bomb!" Everything went pink. Lucy was surrounded by a cloud of warm, fluffy wool. Ooooh.  
  
Lucy's eyes drifted closed. It was so soft and plushy... Aries twisted and drove her knee into Lucy's stomach. The breath burst out of Lucy's lungs. Her eyes snapped open.  
  
"Don't underestimate me!" Aries shouted. "I'm a stellar spirit too! I have my own pride!"  
  
Loke hadn't wasted a second. He ran halfway up the stairs, leapt onto the banister and then from there to the railing of the catwalk. Angel spun and fled down the catwalk with a cry. "Open, Gate of the Twins, Gemini!"  
  
Gemini materialised, momentarily a pair of tiny blue creatures before they melted together and turned back into a replica of Lucy. Gemini-Lucy swiped a key through the air. "Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!"  
  
What?  
  
Taurus appeared in a flash of starlight, brandishing his axe and shouting his warcry. "Miss Lucy's body is the best!" He did a double-take. "Two Lucies! Moo-st wonderful!"  
  
What? 'These little cuties have the power to flawlessly imitate any human's appearance, abilities and thoughts' - No way! Gemini-Lucy could summon Lucy's spirits?  
  
"Stop Loke, you pervert!" Gemini-Lucy shouted.  
  
Taurus obediently charged past Angel and Gemini and swung his axe at Loke's head.  
  
"Taurus! What are you doing?" Loke shouted, diving out of the way. "That isn't the real Lucy! The real one is down there!"  
  
"U-u-uh," Taurus stammered. "I don't think I can stop-"  
  
"Gate of the Bull, close!" Lucy shouted, rearing back as Aries tried to headbutt her. Nothing happened. "Taurus! Forced Dismissal!" Nothing happened. The gate wasn't there to close!  
  
"Uh-uh, afraid not," Gemini said, wagging a finger. "I opened the gate, not you.”  
  
Aries managed to get one hand free between two loops of the whip and pointed a finger at Lucy. "Wool Shot!" She fired off a dozen little pink puffs of wool, and one hit Lucy square in the mouth.  
  
"Ow! Eurgh!" While Lucy was spitting out strands of pink fluff, Aries headbutted her. Whole new constellations of stars flashed in front of Lucy's eyes. Aries kicked Lucy off, and she landed on her back with a thud that made her wheeze. "Ow!" Lucy responded maturely, by grabbing a handful of Aries's hair and yanking on it hard. They rolled over and over, Lucy struggling to pin Aries down with Caelum.  
  
Loke was struggling to get close enough to hit Taurus. The bull's longer reach and giant double-bladed axe kept him moving back and on the defensive. Loke darted back away from a blow that could have cleaved him in two, pointed behind Taurus and shouted “Look! Lucy's taken her top off!”  
  
Taurus turned to look. “Where?”  
  
Regulus's light flared up around Loke's fist. “Regulus Impact!” He drove his fist into Taurus's solar plexus with a flash of light in the shape of a lion's head. The blast hurled Taurus back. He hit the floor with a crash that made the whole catwalk shake.  
  
Loke moved both hands in a circle, creating a huge magical seal. “Regulus Blast!” A bolt of brilliant light shot out of the seal.  
  
“Aldebaran Axe!” Taurus spun his axe over his head. Loke's golden light wrapped around the twin blades. Taurus rolled to his feet and swung the blade down with a yell of effort. The blast broke free and roared down the catwalk towards Loke. He had to bound onto the outside railing to evade it. Taurus jumped high, spinning his axe until the blade was a silvery blur, and slammed it down. "Rampage!" The axe blade shook the catwalk and split the floor in two. A fissure raced down the centre of the catwalk.  
  
“Taurus, you idiot!” Loke shouted, and threw himself off the railing as, with a creak and scream of twisting metal, half of the catwalk fell away under him. It hit the ground fifteen feet below with a crash that made the floor shake.  
  
Lucy looked up sharply, and saw for a moment Loke teetering on the edge of the shredded catwalk before he managed to regain his footing. In the second that she was distracted, Aries twisted, kneed Lucy in the stomach and rolled over again. Aries might look like a wisp in a fluffy dress, but she felt a lot less sylphlike when she was sitting on you. Lucy shoved Caelum against Aries's chest, trying to knock her off.  
  
"Caelum, Cannon Form!" Angel shouted. For a second Lucy thought, what? is she trying to distract Caelum? before she remembered there was more than one Caelum key out there. Who was Angel aiming for? She'd have to be stupid to target Loke when she could hit Lucy and take out both of them! Lucy let go of Caelum's hilt and wheezed "Flight Form!" Caelum shifted shape, into the ball with the ring floating over it like a halo.  
  
"Fire!" Angel shouted.  
  
Angel's Caelum fired. Lucy's shot up into the air, dragging Lucy with it and knocking Aries away. Angel's Caelum's blast tore straight through Aries and blew a crater in the floor below. Aries screamed, and Lucy screamed with her. The edges of Aries's wound, a clean hole clear through her midsection, sizzled and burned pink. She sagged back onto the ground.  
  
Loke reflexively spun away from Taurus with a shout. "Aries!" The second of distraction cost him. Taurus grabbed Loke by the back of his suit jacket and hurled him over the catwalk railing. Loke crashed to the ground fifteen feet below.  
  
"Loke!" Lucy screamed. "Are you okay?"  
  
Aries's huge dark eyes were fixed blindly on the ceiling. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "I'm glad," she whispered. "Loke found a good master-" Her voice trailed off. She faded out.  
  
"Stupid spirit!" Angel shouted after Aries, as she disappeared. "You let her go!" She was red-faced and breathing hard.  
  
"You attacked your own spirit?" Lucy demanded. Angel had been trying to shoot Lucy, and Aries was just... what? Collateral damage?  
  
"So what?" Angel said. "It's not like it'll kill her, so what's the problem?"  
  
"That doesn't stop them feeling pain!" Lucy shouted. "That doesn't mean they don't have feelings! You dare call yourself a stellar spirit mage? You're no such thing! You're just a vicious bitch who managed to steal a bunch of keys, and your dress looks like you're wearing a dead swan!"  
  
Angel's eyes narrowed. "I don't think I like your attitude."  
  
Lucy answered that with a middle finger.  
  
"Gemini, withdraw," Angel said. Gemini-Lucy and Taurus both vanished, with a startled bellow from the bull spirit. "Open, Gate of the Maid! Virgo!"  
  
"This is bad," Loke gasped, scrambling to his feet. "Virgo uses earth magic. Lucy, get on one of those crates!"  
  
A flash of starlight coalesced into another pink-haired young girl. This one was plain and pasty-skinned, though, with a smattering of spots across her face, and dressed in a dowdy old-fashioned maid's costume.  
  
"Virgo, what happened? You used to be so cute!" Loke said.  
  
"I am a loyal stellar spirit. I appear in whatever form my owner wishes," Virgo said.  
  
Angel was that kind of woman? Ugh.  
  
Virgo abruptly leapt, spun in midair and dived headfirst into the floor. She cut through the concrete foundations as easily as a swimmer diving into the pool. Lucy scrambled onto a crate, and shrieked.  
  
“Behind you!”  
  
Virgo leapt out of the ground behind Loke, spun in mid-air and brought a powerful kick scything down at his head. Loke staggered forward. Virgo vanished back underground, fast, before he could retaliate. Lucy scrambled to her feet on top of her crate, wondering how much of a defense it really was. “Close, Gate of the Chisel,” she said under her breath, and Caelum dissolved. Her strength was fading. She didn't think she could fuel another cannon blast without losing Loke.  
  
Loke looked down sharply as the ground trembled under his feet, and spun in time to meet Virgo with a solid right hook. Virgo was hurled clear off her feet but vanished again as soon as she hit the ground, leaving a neat outline of her body in the floor. When she reappeared, shooting out of the ground like a jack-in-the-box, it seemed like she'd learned her lesson; she was all the way on the other side of the hall. She lashed out. The chains on her wrists extended. Loke ducked as they whipped over his head, and then raised across the hall towards her. Virgo didn't disappear back underground. She just dropped to one knee – Loke's kick sailed over her head – and pressed both hands to the floor.  
  
“Spica Lock!”  
  
The crate under Lucy burst into splinters. She fell, with a shriek, and just had time to see that the floor had broken open before the concrete folded around her, and all light was blotted out. Thick gritty dust filled her mouth. She tried to shove out with her hands, but there wasn't enough space. The rocks pressed in like they were trying to crush the life out of her. Distantly, she heard Angel laughing. “Loke!” Lucy shrieked. There was a flash of gold. Loke was trying to blow the rock apart to get her out, but then Lucy heard him cry out and the light fades. She could still see where the cracks were, at least! She twisted, pulled her knees up – scraping the skin away against the rock – and kicked herself free. Concrete dust rained down on her hair and shoulders as she scrambled out of the rocky cocoon. “ _Loke_!”  
  
Virgo's chains had extended and locked another set of cuffs around Loke's wrists. She was trying to haul him back, away from Lucy. Loke summoned up a brilliant explosion, trying to blast himself out of the cuffs, but it didn't damage the metal at all. Loke charged at Virgo. She spun and did a perfect swandive back into the ground. The chains snapped taut. Loke was yanked off his feet and hit the floor face-first. The chains around his wrists dissolved. He pushed himself up. Blood dripped from his mouth.

"Loke!" Lucy gasped.  
  
“Get off the ground!” he yelled back. Lucy raced across the hall, towards the stairs to the catwalk. "Not up _there_!”  
  
Lucy didn't slow down. She tore up the stairs and onto the catwalk. Angel spun, startled, eyes bulging. "Virgo!"

Virgo burst out of the ground in a shower of earth and concrete fragments and fired her chains straight up at Lucy. Lucy threw her arms up in front of her face. The cuffs snapped shut around her wrists. Virgo yanked on the chains, trying to haul Lucy over the railing and bring her crashing to the ground fifteen feet below.  
  
That was Lucy's plan the whole time. The catwalk was cantilevered out from the wall. There was a five-foot gap on the other side. Lucy grabbed hold of Virgo's chains in both hands and threw herself over the other side of the catwalk.  
  
As Lucy fell, the chains rattled over the railing and Virgo was snatched off the ground. Her weight stopped Lucy in midair with a jerk that nearly tore her arms out of their sockets. Lucy was left gasping and dangling in midair by the chain around her wrists. Virgo swung towards Lucy and tried to kick her.  
  
"Regulus Punch!" Loke leapt six feet in the air, his fist engulfed in golden light, and punched Virgo in the stomach. Lucy winced. The impact hurled Virgo into the wall next to Lucy. She disintegrated into a shower of stardust, and her chains disintegrated along with her. Lucy fell with a shriek. Loke caught her before she hit the ground.  
  
“Lucy! Are you all right?”  
  
“I'm okay!”  
  
"Virgo! How pathetic!" Angel snapped, and drew another key. “Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!”  
  
Lucy saw the flash of light dimly around Loke's shoulder. Ugh! How could Angel keep opening zodiac gates like that?! “Loke, let me down!”  
  
Loke glanced back over his shoulder, and his eyes widened. He yanked Lucy closer to his chest and spun to put his whole body between her and Sagittarius.  
  
“Loke?” Lucy gasped. He jolted. Lucy slid out of his arms and clutched at his shoulders. An arrow stuck out of his back. “Loke!”  
  
“I'm fine! Stay back!” he snapped, and charged at Sagittarius. The archer swung his bow up and loosed an arrow. It sailed high over Loke's head and hit one of the lights hanging from the ceiling. The light fell. Loke saw the shadows shift on the floor and dived out of the way a second before the light crashed to the ground. He wasn't quick enough. Sagittarius had been nocking another arrow to his bow before the first had even hit, and that one struck Loke in the gut.  
  
Angel let out a peal of merry laughter. Loke doubled over, clutching at his stomach. “Loke!” Lucy screamed. Her whip had fallen away from Aries when she vanished back to the stellar spirit world. It was lying in a loose tangle on the floor. Not far away, but too far to reach...  
  
“Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum!” The chisel dropped into her hands. She lobbed it at Sagittarius. It flew well over his head, but he still ducked reflexively. Loke was struggling back to his feet, swaying like a newborn kitten. Lucy snatched up her whip and charged Sagittarius with a yell. “Close, Gate of the Chisel!”  
  
Sagittarius set an arrow to his bow and took aim. Lucy dropped into a slide. The arrow whistled over her head. Lucy lashed out with her whip and the end coiled around Sagittarius's bow. She yanked it out of his grip. “Loke! Come on!”  
  
Loke gathered up the last of his strength. “Regulus Punch!” Sagittarius spun just in time to meet the uppercut.  
  
The burst of supernova light hurled Sagittarius off his feet and left flashing neon afterimages on Lucy's eyes. When Sagittarius hit the ground, he burst into glowing dust and disappeared.  
  
Loke staggered and fell to the ground. Lucy tried to get to him, but stumbled and pitched forward on her knees. The room swam around her.  
  
"Lucy. I'm sorry," Loke rasped. He was dissolving slowly into stardust.  
  
"Loke!" Lucy reached out for him as his head fell forwards. He disintegrated under her fingertips. "Loke!" Lucy could barely breathe. She felt dizzy, and black spots drifted in front of her eyes.

  
"Oh, dear. That's what happens when you keep a gate of the zodiac open too long, with only that pathetic power to sustain it," Angel said. Lucy didn't have the strength to summon anyone else. The attempt to alert Juvia, when she'd had Caelum blast through the ceiling, had obviously failed. It was over. She didn't know what else she could do.

  
Angel raised a key. "Open, Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"  
  
The two blue creatures appeared in a flash of light, and as Lucy tried to push herself up to her hands and knees, they transformed back into the replica of Lucy herself. Gemini-Lucy strode across the hall and kicked Lucy in the gut. Lucy sprawled on the floor, gasping, and tried to twist and kick Gemini-Lucy in the knee. Gemini-Lucy sidestepped easily and booted Lucy in the face. Lucy was thrown back on the floor. Gemini straddled her and pinned her down, with a knee on each arm. Lucy struggled uselessly.  
  
Angel was laughing. "Being defeated by yourself... don't you just feel pathetic?" She'd collapsed on the bottom step of the stairs to watch. If Lucy could only reach her knuckleduster, or even if Gemini wasn't sitting on her, she would crawl over there and try to punch Angel to death. Angel was still laughing, breathlessly. "This is great! Gemini, kill her!" Gemini-Lucy hiked up her skirt and retrieved, from the strap wound around her thigh, a perfect duplicate of Lucy's knuckleduster.  
  
 _Shit_.

Gemini-Lucy drew her fist back. Lucy swore a silent oath that she would definitely come back as a vengeful ghost and murder Angel. Tears sprang to her eyes. Her breath shuddered in her throat.  
  
Gemini didn't move. She stared down at Lucy, her eyes wide and shocked. Her lips parted.  
  
"Gemini! What's wrong with you?" Angel demanded. "Kill her!"  
  
"I can hear a voice echoing inside my head," Gemini said. Her voice shook. Tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't do it... Lucy loves us, all us stellar spirits... She loves us from the bottom of her heart..."  
  
Angel's mouth fell open.  
  
"Gemini," Lucy gasped, trying to push herself up.  
  
"Get out of my sight!" Angel screamed. "You pathetic piece of trash!" She slammed Gemini's gate closed. Gemini vanished with a pained cry. Angel climbed to her feet, and staggered sideways. Her hands clenched in midair as if she was throttling someone. "I'll kill her myself! With my bare hands, if I have to!"  
  
Then there was a loud, shrill scream from outside. "Lucy!"  
  
Angel looked up. Her mouth fell open.  
  
"Juvia?" Lucy said.  
  
The door blew off its hinges and skidded across the floor. Stinging rain blew in through the open archway.  
  
"Open, Gate of the Scorpion!" Angel shouted. "Scorpio!"  
  
"Hey!" Scorpio said, as he materialised. "Didn't we have an agreement?"  
  
Aquarius appeared beside him, with her usual scowl. "What are you playing at? We'd barely started eating!"  
  
"So what? Change of plan!" Angel snapped, as Juvia appeared in the doorway. "Scorpio, kill that woman!" The raindrops breaking on Juvia's shoulders and head reflected the dim streetlamp glow, giving her an otherworldly aura. Her eyes showed white all the way around. She looked like a complete and utter psychopath. Lucy had never been so glad to see anybody.  
  
Juvia strode forward. Scorpio dropped down, hands flat on the floor, tail aimed squarely at her chest. "Sand Spear!" He fired a narrow bolt of sand compressed almost into rock at Juvia. It went straight through her and out the other side, and didn't slow her down for a second. She exploded into a swirling mass of Water Slicers that spun like a tornado, and the storm swallowed Scorpio up. A cloud of golden dust swirled for a moment among the churning water, and then it was gone. Aquarius cried out. "Scorpio!" She swung her urn up. "Wave of the Waterbearer!" She brought the urn down, spraying out a massive wave of water. The cyclone collapsed back into Juvia. She spun to stand side-on to it and extended one arm, hand flat like a spear. The wave split apart on either side of her. Juvia lunged forward with a ball of high-pressure water building between her hands and let it go, right under Aquarius's upraised urn. The blast of water wouldn't have hurt Aquarius at all. The urn smashing into her face did. Aquarius disappeared with a cry and a swirl of dust.  
  
Angel yelped and scrambled up. "What the-"  
  
Lucy caught her shoulder and punched her under the chin. "What's the matter?" she demanded, as Angel staggered back. "Are you going somewhere? Do you not have any more spirits you can hide behind?"  
  
"I won't lose!" Angel gasped. "The Oracion Seis... are never defeated!" She brandished her keys. "Open, Gate of the-"  
  
Lucy hit her in the face and grabbed her keyring. "Shut up! You lost already!" She tried to yank the keys from Angel's grip.  
  
"The Oracion Seis will destroy you," Angel gasped. "The strongest guild... never defeated..."  
  
Lucy tore her keyring from her hand and smacked Angel across the face with it. "That's for being a terrible excuse for a stellar spirit mage!" She slammed her bare foot into Angel's leg, just above the knee. "That's for being an awful person!" As Angel doubled over, Lucy balled her fists together and brought them both down hard on the back of Angel's neck. "And that's for Aries!" Angel's eyes rolled back in her head. She crumpled to the ground. Lucy sat down hard, next to her.  
  
"Lucy!" Juvia dropped to her knees next to Lucy and wrapped her arms tightly around Lucy's shoulders. "Is Lucy all right?"  
  
"I'm good. I'm good," Lucy said. "...actually, I'm really really tired." She glanced back at Angel. "What a bitch," she said. "Seriously, Juvia, I'm starting to think I can't trust anyone with stellar spirits except me."

* * *

In the topmost tower of the Oracion Seis's fortress, Brain clapped a hand to his face. Hoteye, who was doing the accounts for the third time, looked up. (The sums were all correct. He just liked arriving at the positive balance at the end.) Two of Brain's tattoos, two lines high up on his cheekbones, had faded away.  
  
"Angel has been defeated," he said.  
  
"Oh, dear," Hoteye said. "What was the bounty on her again?"  
  
"Seis!" Brain roared. "Assemble!"  
  
Three floors below, Cobra twitched, and hauled himself out of a tangle of blankets and Cubellios. He draped the snake around his shoulders and trailed upstairs. "What?" he said, as he came into the tower room. "Did you have a brainwave about Nirvana? ... that wasn't meant to be a pun."  
  
"Did Racer not hear me?" Brain said. "The fastest man alive has no reason not to be the first one here."  
  
"The guy in the coffin downstairs heard you! It's three in the morning. He's asleep," Cobra said. "What's the matter?"  
  
Behind him, the door swung open again. Midnight stared at them through narrowed, black-rimmed eyes. "I hope this is important, Father," he said. Cubellios hissed and coiled tighter around Cobra's shoulders.  
  
"I know, girl, I know, he's a scary little freak," Cobra murmured, stroking her head.  
  
"It seems that our compatriot Angel has fallen in battle," Hoteye said.  
  
Cobra jolted, and reached up reflexively to brush his fingers against Cubellios's scales. "What? Angel? How?"  
  
Judging by Midnight's expression, this revelation in no way justified waking him up. "Ugh. She was always the weakest. Dead, or captured alive?"  
  
"Hmmm. Impossible to say, at the current time," Hoteye said.  
  
"She went to Crocus. Following up a lead on some new gold keys," Cobra said. "You think she got caught there?"  
  
"It sounds like she allowed herself to be lured into a trap," Midnight said. "The gold keys she was after probably never existed."  
  
"If she was in Crocus... with the Council disbanded, it'd have to have been the military," Cobra said. Midnight wrinkled his nose in disdain. "She'll be in the royal jail. That's not as high-security as the council's prisons. We can break her out, easy."  
  
"Why bother?" Midnight said.  
  
"What's that about?" Cobra said. "She's one of us. It'd be an embarrassment to leave her in prison."  
  
"Not any more," Midnight said. "The Oracion Seis doesn't take losers."  
  
"It's unfortunate that Angel allowed herself to be defeated, and her loss will be avenged. But if she was captured alive, by a force such as Fiore's military, it poses bigger problems than just the loss of our intelligence specialist," Brain said.  
  
"She won't be able to escape alone. She's only a holder-type mage. Without her keys, she's useless," Midnight said. "And useless to us, as well. Father, there's no point in wasting energy trying to retrieve her."  
  
"She's been one of the Seis since the beginning, hasn't she?" Cobra said. "We're the Oracion Seis, not the Oracion- what would the Oracion Five even be?"  
  
"The Oracion Cinco, I believe," said Hoteye.  
  
"Well, that just sounds stupid. It sounds like a boating accident." Cobra stuck his hands in his pockets and leant back against the wall. "How embarrassing would it be, to let Angel stay in prison without even trying to retrieve her? So they can hold her up like a trophy? If we allow that-"  
  
"Do you think that Angel would hesitate to betray our secrets, to secure leniency for herself?" Brain said. Cobra subsided into irritable silence. "Of course we won't allow her to stay in prison. We can't permit such a stain on the guild's reputation. But there are more important matters that must be dealt with first. The whole objective could be imperilled."  
  
"This will cost us dearly. Perhaps even financially," Hoteye said. He clutched the accounts book to his chest. Tears brimmed in his eyes.  
  
"Shut up, Hoteye," Cobra said.  
  
"We'll deal with Angel later. For the moment, our priority is the plan to reawaken Nirvana," Brain said. "It may be time to take a move I've been considering, against the guild Cait Shelter." He pulled another map from the mess on the table and spread it out flat.  
  
"The descendants of the Nirvit? I had thought that you meant for them to be the first victims," Hoteye said.  
  
"We've established that none of them know how to unseal Nirvana, but they're the most likely to know how to re-seal it. It would have been pleasant, to destroy the remnants of the Nirvit with their own ancestral weapon, and if they have any way of fighting back against the device, it would have been simplest to leave them unaware until there's no time left to mount a defence. Still, there is a certain individual at the Cait Shelter guild that we will need, if we mean to move forward in a hurry, and I'm tired of waiting for her to stray outside the confines of her guild."

"You plan to wake _him_ , then?" Midnight said. Brain nodded. He was looking down at the map. Midnight looked for a moment as if he would say something, then pursed his lips and looked at the floor instead.  
  
Blah blah blah Nirvana blah blah certain individuals. Cobra headed for the window.  
  
"Where are you going?" Brain said.  
  
"Crocus," Cobra said. "I'm just going to see what's going on." He tossed Cubellios out of the window. Her wings unfolded. She hung in the air outside the window, waiting.  
  
"Don't be so hasty, Cobra," Hoteye said.

"Shut up, Hoteye."  
  
"What exactly do you think you're going to do?" Midnight said.  
  
"Take a look around," Cobra said.  
  
"This is a critical juncture. You absolutely cannot draw attention to yourself," Brain said. "We will mount the assault against Cait Shelter tomorrow night. There isn't time for you to-"  
  
"Tomorrow night, Cait Shelter. Don't attract attention. Got it," Cobra said, and climbed up onto the window sill. "I'll see you all there." He leapt out, onto Cubellios's back, and the two of them flew away.  
  
Midnight rolled his eyes so hard they nearly fell out of his skull, and slouched out of the room. "I'm going back to sleep," he said over his shoulder, though it was hardly necessary.  
  
"What a waste of time," Brain said, and looked back down at the map. He agreed that it was necessary to get Angel out of prison, of course. Letting her rot away in a cell would be too kind. There had to be a punishment for anyone who failed so publically. His guild didn't need trash who would allow themselves to be defeated by common military soldiers. His guild didn't need anyone who would allow themselves to be defeated at all.  
  
But at the moment, he had more important things to deal with.

* * *

Aries, Gemini, Scorpio, Sagittarius and Virgo, plus a Caelum key, three Musca keys - who even needed three Musca keys? - and two more silver keys Lucy didn't recognise. "Jackpot!" Well, assuming they agreed to contract with her. Lucy wasn't sure what she'd do with the keys if they didn't want to. Probably hand them over to Fairy Tail in case they recruited a stellar spirit mage? It was a safe bet that anyone Makarov picked up would be demented on friendship and hugging.  
  
"Lucy is pleased?" Juvia said.  
  
"Lucy is very pleased!" Lucy clipped Angel's keyring to her belt as well and did a happy little jig, or as happy of a little jig as she could while exhausted and sitting on the floor.  
  
Juvia was looking at Angel's keyring. Her forehead furrowed. "The mermaid is one of Lucy's spirits, isn't she? Juvia didn't mean to attack any of Lucy's spirits. Juvia is very sorry!"  
  
"Do it again, if you like," Lucy said. "No. Really. Do it again." She looked at Angel. "We should go through her pockets."  
  
"Why? Lucy has her keys right there," Juvia said.  
  
"Yeah, but, she might have some loose change we could use to get ice cream," Lucy pointed out.  
  
They went through Angel's pockets, which were very hard to find among all those feathers, and checked her boots. They turned up a couple of thousand jewel in notes, and Angel's hotel room key. She'd been staying at the Saffron Hotel as well. That was creepy. Lucy twirled the key around her finger.  
  
"Do you want to stick together, or should I go raid her room while you-" She looked at Juvia's face. "Okay. We'll stick together."  
  
Juvia thrust out one palm. "Water Lock!" Angel was swallowed up in a ball of water. "Juvia thought that she heard Angel say something about a group which would avenge her?"  
  
"Oh, yeah," Lucy said. The Opticon Sauce or something? "I really doubt it. For her buddies to be coming to destroy us, she'd have to have some. What sort of crazy people would be friends with her?"

* * *

In Angel's hotel room, Lucy and Juvia found a disturbing number of angel pictures and ornaments and a big leatherbound book on stellar spirit summoning. Lucy took the opportunity to steal it before the military showed up to search for clues, and then they went back to their room and passed out.  
  
Well, Lucy did. Juvia wasn't nearly so tired.  
  
When they dragged themselves down to the lobby again, past noon, there were several irritated men down there waiting for Juvia to apologise for what she'd done to the bathroom. She brushed them off. There was a message waiting for her at the front desk, as well.  
  
That was why Juvia was currently curled up in a miserable ball at the end of the sofa, cuddling a glass of red wine.  
  
"So he's been called back to Fiore's Judicial Palace? Until when?" Lucy said.  
  
"Juvia does not know."  
  
"Does that mean they're finally reforming the Council and the Rune Knights?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Maybe..." Juvia said. "What if it's only a ruse to spend time with another woman?"  
  
"That's not actually very likely, is it?" Lucy said. Because to be honest, having met Lahar, she thought it was miraculous enough that he'd looked away from his job long enough to notice the existence of one woman, let alone two. Juvia shook her head slowly, so she obviously hadn't been too committed to that wild leap of imagination either.  
  
"If the Council and the Rune Knights are finally reforming, that's a good thing, right?" Lucy said. "In the interests of law and justice and there being people who will give us money in exchange for bad people. I'm just saying, the Council would have given us more for Angel than the military did. And maybe the new Council will have learnt not to fire Etherion everywhere at the slightest provocation."  
  
Juvia was still looking down at her wine glass. She had had a terrible nightmare a few days earlier, about duelling an enormous monster made of paperwork for Lahar's affections. Lucy's best efforts to reassure Juvia that she could beat an enemy made entirely out of paper had proved futile. "You'll be fine," Lucy said. "So you might... communicate entirely in letters for a while, it'll be fine. I mean, he did call to tell you that he'd been called up, didn't he?" Juvia had told Lahar that they were visiting Crocus, but she hadn't technically mentioned that they were going there to lure out a dangerous killer, because Lahar really wouldn't have thought that was sensible. So, in terms of honesty and commitment, Lahar was winning the relationship.  
  
Lucy changed the subject. "According to this chart," she said, holding up Angel's two mystery silver keys, "these two are called Ara and Reticulum. The altar and the... reticulum." She frowned. "I have no idea what an altar does, and what exactly is a reticulum?"  
  
"Juvia believes a reticule is a small beaded purse," Juvia said.  
  
"Open, Gate of the Purse! Reticulum!" Lucy tried, waving the key. Nothing happened. "Maybe there's something else?"  
  
Juvia turned and raised her hand to signal one of the bar staff. "We would like a dictionary, please."  
  
"... Any particular kind, ma'am?" he said.  
  
"Juvia would like it to contain the word 'reticule'," Juvia said.  
  
He inclined his head politely and went to consult with the manager. Lucy twisted around the sofa and watched over the back as he explained, with less polite hand gestures. The manager went to the front desk. The front desk sent someone to the office. The office sent someone out to the local library. When a dictionary was finally deposited in front of Juvia, she flicked through the pages and said "Oh. A reticule is a type of purse, but it is also an alternative spelling of 'reticle'."  
  
"Okay," Lucy said. "What's a reticle?"  
  
Juvia flicked through the pages and reported, "It's an alternative term for a graticule."  
  
"...What's a graticule?"  
  
Juvia flicked through the pages again. "It is 'a network of lines representing meridians and parallels, on which a map or plan can be represented, or a series of fine lines or fibres in the eyepiece of an optical device, such as a microscope, or on the screen of an oscilloscope, used as a measuring scale or an aid in locating objects.'"  
  
"Oh. Well, that explains that, then!" Lucy said. "Open, Gate of the Network of Lines?" She put the two keys down on the table and picked up Angel's book again. "Oh, hey, those guys are coming back for you."  
  
Juvia drained her wine glass and set it down. The two men loomed over them.  
  
"Maybe we're in trouble," Lucy muttered.  
  
"We've finished assessing the damage," one of the men said. His suit wasn't quite as well tailored, so Lucy assumed he was the less important one. "The repairs will cost around ninety-five thousand jewel-"  
  
"Ow," Lucy said, under her breath, and scrunched herself into the sofa cushions. Juvia fished out her checkbook, wrote a check, handed it over. They looked at the check for a moment, and then raised their voices again.  
  
"This is about more than money! We absolutely prohibit mages from fighting on our premises. The disrespect you've shown to this hotel-"  
  
Lucy guessed that they wanted another, bigger check.  
  
"Of course Juvia and Lucy had no intention of being disrespectful!" Juvia said, with a good imitation of shock. "We were attacked unexpectedly by another guest staying in your hotel, and had to defend ourselves. Haven't the military already been here to investigate? I think it's quite apparent who was in the wrong. Unless you're implying that we were somehow responsible for the attack?"  
  
"That's terrible. This is the worst customer service I've ever received," Lucy said. "I'm definitely going to get Loke to tell everyone how awful this place is."  
  
"Fairy Tail's Loke?"  
  
"Are there any other Lokes worth mentioning?" Lucy said. The two men looked at each other. Lucy could see the wheels turning behind their eyes. Those wheels were labelled 'bad publicity' and 'no money ever again'.  
  
Juvia relented a little, and stood up. "Would you like Juvia's assistance in draining the bathroom?" The men agreed. "Juvia will be back soon,," Juvia said, and headed off.  
  
What a pain. It was lucky that Angel had a Caelum key as well. Lucy had been able to pin the damage to the hall on her.  
  
Lucy ordered herself a hot chocolate and curled up on the sofa, with Angel's book on her lap and Serpens draped around her neck like a scarf to stop people from bothering her. Aaaaaah.

The book was heavy going; not just because it was written like an academic treatise from four hundred years ago, but also because Angel had doodled more angels all over it. She was still only a few pages in and muttering to herself out loud when someone leant over the back of her sofa.  
  
"Hi there, gorgeous!" She looked up sharply. It was a guy about her own age, with reddish hair that stuck up like he'd put his finger in an electrical socket, sort of a flat face and a wicked grin. He gave Lucy an appreciative once-over. "And your mistress isn't bad either."  
  
Oh, he'd been talking to Serpens. The snake was having the exact opposite effect to intended, then.  
  
"What exactly am I looking at here?" Pervy Snake Fancier asked. "The coloration looks like a juvie burrowing python, but it's twice the size and the head looks more like a viper's. It's magical, right?"  
  
"Yep! He's a stellar spirit. Serpens, to be exact," Lucy said. She was slightly offended that he thought she might be stupid enough to wrap a regular snake that size of Serpens around her neck. Non-magical snakes were beautiful, but they weren't all that smart or predictable.  
  
Pervy Snake Fancier reached out to touch Serpens.  
  
"He bites," Lucy said. "And if he does you'll be unconscious on the floor within thirty seconds."  
  
"Venomous? I like that," he said, and brushed a finger against Serpens' head. Serpens struck so fast it was almost a blur. Pervy Snake Fancier whipped his hand back.  
  
"He had his mouth closed," Lucy said, once she'd stopped inwardly hyperventilating and imagining the trouble they'd get into if Serpens poisoned another guest in the bar. Normally when she told people Serpens was poisonous, they didn't respond by poking him in the head. "He just doesn't like you."  
  
"That's rude. We only just met," Pervy Snake Fancier told Serpens, before switching his attention back to Lucy. "I only saw a Serpens spirit once before. That one looked like a regular corn."  
  
"There are a lot of Serpens keys," Lucy said. "Mine's the best, though!"  
  
His grin widened. "I've got a pretty impressive snake myself. Want to see?"  
  
There was a long pause. Lucy stared at him. Pervy Snake Fancier mentally reviewed that sentence.  
  
"I promise, it's not as impressive as you think!" Lucy said.  
  
"Yeah, that came out wrong," he agreed, with a laugh. "I'll be back in a second. Don't go anywhere!" Lucy laid the book down on her lap and folded her arms as he left. "What do you think, Serpens?" Serpens hissed. "Very cocky," Lucy agreed. "If he doesn't come back with something really impressive, you can bite him. Just make sure nobody's watching first."  
  
Fortunately for Pervy Snake Fancier, he came back with something pretty impressive. Lucy sat bolt upright. "Oh my God, it's enormous!"  
  
"That's what all the girls say," Pervy Snake Fancier agreed, as shrieking customers fled the bar. One of the waitresses dived into a cupboard and locked it behind her.  
  
"Seriously, how are you even lifting it?" Lucy said. Pervy Snake Fancier had, slung across his shoulders and looped over one arm, the biggest snake Lucy had ever seen. Its head was twice the size of his. It was probably twice his weight, as well. Its diameter was bigger than Lucy's.  
  
"This is Cubellios!" Pervy Snake Fancier said. "The best snake ever... yours is cute and all, but it can't compare to her.” The rest of the wait staff had taken cover behind the bar and were squabbling over which of them had to go tell the snake-wielding lunatics to get out.  
  
“How big is she?” Lucy asked.  
  
“Twenty-two feet,” Pervy Snake Fancier said smugly. “... give or take a few inches, she gets impatient with the measuring. She eats whole pigs at a time.”  
  
“Is she venomous?” Lucy asked. The only snakes that got that big naturally were all constrictors, but Cubellios was pretty obviously magical. She was purple, for starters.  
  
Pervy Snake Fancier laughed. “She's lethal, when she wants to be. Her venom's a neurotoxin that paralyses the breathing muscles. You suffocate after a few hours.” His grin as he said that was unsettling. Lucy pulled her legs in and tucked them under her. He took the opportunity to flop half of Cubellios onto the sofa. Lucy glanced down and idly stroked Serpens.  
  
“The pervy snake fancier is delusional,” she reassured him.. “You're still the best.”  
  
“Pervy snake fancier?” Pervy Snake Fancier repeated. “You say that like it's a bad thing.”  
  
"What is your name, then?"  
  
"Cobra," he said. Cubellios rested her massive head on his shoulder. He reached up absently to brush a hand against her scales.  
  
"Liar!” said Lucy. "Nobody's named Cobra."  
  
Cobra spread his hands out, as if to say 'and yet, here I am'.  
  
"So, you're saying that when you were born your mother looked at you and thought of a venomous reptile," Lucy said. "I wouldn't admit to that if I were you."  
  
"I love venomous reptiles! I had to get it from somewhere, right?" he said.  
  
"Am I going to have to go check the guest register?"  
  
"You think I'd put my real name in the guest register?" he said. "Speaking of checking in, how long have you been here?"  
  
"Six days," Lucy said.  
  
"I only checked in this morning. Didn't something big go down here yesterday?"  
  
"Not that I know of," Lucy said, wondering if there was a scandal at the party that she missed.  
  
"The cops were here this morning, weren't they?"  
  
"Oh, right, that," Lucy said. "There was a dark mage staying here." Would it be boasting to say that she and Juvia were the ones who took her down? Lucy wasn't sure whether guys were into that. Augh! Why did she care, anyway?  
  
Cobra tipped his head on one side, watching her with half-closed eyes. He looked like he was listening to something. He frowned.  
  
"What?" Lucy said.  
  
Cobra smacked his forehead with the ball of his palm and shook his head sharply. "Nothing. What do you know about the dark mage?"  
  
That was pretty... blunt. Did he work for a paper or something? Though Lucy had a hard time thinking of any paper that would hire someone who walked around wearing a snake. She shut the book and put it down on the table, next to Serpens' key. "Uh..."  
  
Cobra was looking at the book. "Where did you get that?"  
  
He recognised Angel's book. How did he recognise Angel's book?  
  
Oh crap.  
  
Lucy reached for her keys. Cobra lunged forward and grabbed her arm. "You're the one who took down Angel?" Serpens twisted around lightning-fast and sank his fangs into Cobra's hand. Cobra grabbed Serpens just behind the head with his other hand and yanked, hard. The snake's coils tightened around Lucy's throat. "Gate of the Serpent, close!" Lucy shouted. Serpens dissolved into starlight.  
  
It was too late. Cobra hadn't been trying to choke her, just to hold her still for a moment, long enough for Cubellios to bite down on Lucy's other arm.  
  
Lucy jerked and cried out in pain, and brought her fist down on Cubellios's head. The snake let go and shot back under the sofa, leaving two oozing puncture wounds behind. Crap! Lucy tried to scramble off the sofa, and her knees collapsed under her. She sprawled across the table.  
  
“I can hear your heart pounding,” Cobra told her. “It's spreading the poison further through your body with every beat.”  
  
Lucy clutched at her keys. “Gate of the Lion – hggk – open!” Her throat felt as if there were a hand around it, squeezing the life out of her. Panic was making her light-headed. Nothing happened. She couldn't even sense the gate to open it. Was Loke still too worn out from the fight the night before? Crap!  
  
Cobra loomed over her. "You don't know who you were messing with, when you went after Angel," he said. All his charm had vanished.  
  
"Yes, I did,” Lucy wheezed. “Crappy mage. Didn't deserve – hggk – keys at all-” She sucked in the deepest breath she could. “Open, Gate of the Great-”  
  
Cobra stamped on her fingers. Lucy shrieked and convulsed. Her keys fell from her hand. Cobra snatched them up. “I know the weakness of a summoning mage,” he said. “Without your keys-” He hauled Lucy off the ground by the back of her top. “-you're helpless!” Lucy struggled and tried to scratch at him, but couldn't break free. He punched her in the face.  
  
Lucy blacked out.

* * *

Juvia was drawing water out of the carpet outside the washroom when a white-faced receptionist came running up. The manager and his assistant looked around.  
  
“There's people fighting with snakes in the bar!”  
  
“Lucy!” Juvia gasped. She let the ball of water crash to the floor and raced down the hallway. She skidded into the bar, and her heart skipped a beat. There was a man standing in the middle of the bar. He had Lucy slung across his shoulder.  
  
“Put her down!” Juvia screamed. “Water Slicer!” Three razor-sharp arcs shot towards the kidnapper. He stepped deftly out of the way and spun so the shoulder with Lucy's limp body slung across it faced towards Juvia. “Careful!” His grin showed a lot of white pointed teeth. “It'd be awful if you accidentally hit Lucy, wouldn't it?”  
  
“Let Lucy go!” Juvia shouted. “Whirlpool!” She threw out her fist and hurled a spear of water at Cobra that expanded into a spinning vortex. He dodged easily.  
  
“You can't hit me like that!” He raised his free hand to one ear. “I know exactly what you're going to do. I can hear your movements, your heartbeat, even your thoughts-” His grin flickered. “That's... uh... a bit of a berserker rage you've got there. Who are you?”  
  
“Juvia of the Deep, once of Phantom Lord's Element Four!” He didn't so much as blink. “Who are you?”  
  
“Cobra, of the Oracion Seis,” he said. A heavy weight fell into Juvia's stomach. “That's better,” Cobra said. “Angel was one of ours. Did you think we'd let you get away with-”  
  
“If Angel belonged to the Oracion Seis, then they are evidently not as powerful as Juvia had heard!” Juvia snapped.  
  
Cobra's lips drew back to bare his teeth. “You're not scared? You should be. Cubellios! Show her what you can do!”  
  
The snake reared up and opened its mouth. Cobra and Lucy disappeared instantly behind a thick blood-red cloud.  
  
“No!” Juvia shouted and ran forward into the fog. With her first breath, the poison leached the strength out of her limbs and tightened around her ribs. When she staggered out of the other side, she was wheezing for breath. The front door of the hotel was swinging closed. Juvia lurched against it and fell out into the street.  
  
“Lucy-”  
  
She couldn't see the kidnapper! Where was he? Juvia looked frantically all around the street, and then up. Silhouetted against the afternoon sun, there was a small figure climbing high into the air. It was a winged snake.  
  
Juvia's mouth fell open. The snake could fly? They were escaping! “Water Slicer!” The arcs blasted into the sky and fell back. The attack didn't reach them. The kidnapper and his snake vanished over the rooftops of Crocus city, taking Lucy with them.  
  
Juvia doubled over, clutched at her hair and let out a strangled wail. She spun on her heel and lurched back into the hotel. Lucy's two newest keys and Angel's book were still lying on the table. She snatched them up. The manager and his assistant were shouting and trying to block her path. She hurled them out of the way with a blast of water and stormed out.

 

* * *

 

Much later that night, a fire crackled in the great domed tent that served as Cait Shelter's guild hall. Carla stirred up the fire with the poker, though it was burning well enough already, and looked back over her shoulder at Wendy. "That's hardly proper." Wendy was perched on the master's own bench, wrapped in a colourful patterned blanket. All the guild's other members had retreated back to their own quarters hours before; with the master off at the regular meeting, they'd been practically hibernating all day.

Wendy pulled the blanket higher until her face barely peeked out.

"Are you cold? I'll fetch you another blanket," Carla decided.

"No... no, no, please don't worry, I'm all right," Wendy said, letting the blanket fall away and waving her hands anxiously. "Do you hear footsteps?"

"Don't try to distract me. You'll catch a cough and you know how much trouble that can-" Carla broke off as the curtain over the door was pushed back. Wendy slid off the master's chair.  
  
"You're back! How was the meeting?"  
  
"Nabura," Roubaul grunted. Carla sniffed. She didn't approve of words without any actual meaning. Roubaul climbed up onto his bench, and Wendy brought him a glass and a bottle of something perfectly clear that smelled like paint thinner. Roubaul poured a generous amount of the alcohol into the glass, pushed it away and took a swig from the bottle.  
  
"Are you going to drink _all_ that alcohol?" Carla said.  
  
"I'm not drinking all the alcohol. Look there!" He gestured at the glass.  
  
"How was the meeting?" Wendy asked.  
  
"Tedious," Roubaul said. Paint thinner spilled into his beard.  
  
"Empty your mouth before you speak!" Carla said. Wendy perched on the edge of the bench and waited, swinging her legs, for him to finish drinking.  
  
"Did the other guild masters agree to help?"  
  
"A few of them agreed that they would send teams over."  
  
A slow smile dawned across Wendy's face. Her eyes shone, and she clapped her hands. "That's wonderful!"  
  
"Which guilds?" Carla asked.  
  
"Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail."  
  
Wendy let out a startled squeak. "Fairy Tail? That's Natsu Dragneel's guild!" Roubaul and Carla both looked at her. Wendy's head was down. Her hands were balled into fists and pressed against her chest.  
  
"Wendy?" Carla said.  
  
Wendy spoke slowly and hesitantly. "May I go? As part of our team? If Fairy Tail sends Natsu Dragneel as part of their team-"  
  
"Isn't he in prison?" Carla said. She pursed her lips. Her tail flicked back and forth.  
  
"He was due to be released two days ago," Wendy said.  
  
"This isn't going to be an easy mission," Roubaul warned her. "I wouldn't be thinking of involving our little guild with the Oracion Seis if it weren't so important that they be prevented from gaining Nirvana."  
  
"I know that they're very strong," Wendy said. Roubaul looked at her for a long moment, as if he were assessing her. Wendy sat up straight and tried to look scary and competent.  
  
"Wendy, is there something in your eye?" Carla said.  
  
Wendy's lower lip wobbled.  
  
Roubaul threw back the rest of his drink and said "It's fine. I never considered sending anyone but you and Carla."  
  
"Master!" Wendy beamed and threw her arms out wide as if she wanted to hug the whole world. "I'm so glad! I'd love to meet Natsu-"  
  
Carla said, "What do you mean, you didn't consider sending anyone else?"  
  
Wendy's brilliant smile flickered. Her eyes went huge. "Wait, what?"

* * *

A couple of hours later, Carla was curled up at the foot of Wendy's bed - in a baby's cradle with a little pillow and a rose-patterned counterpane - when she heard a rustling. Wendy's head poked out of her cocoon of blankets. Her nightlight cast a pale blue glow over her face.  
  
"Will we be okay, Carla?"  
  
"Don't be so timid," Carla ordered, though with a twinge of unease. She had been having bad dreams, the last few weeks, about someone taking Wendy away from her. She often had bad dreams about someone taking Wendy away. It probably didn't mean anything. "The other guilds will send their best mages to assist us."  
  
Wendy wriggled uncomfortably under her pile of blankets. She was clearly imagining the best mages that Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale would have to offer, and then weighing herself and Carla against them, and not coming up with a very good answer. Her lower lip wobbled again.  
  
"You're a more capable mage than you think you are, Wendy!" Carla lectured her. "You mustn't be so timid. I wouldn't allow anything to happen to you." She shut her eyes and laid her head back down on the pillow. "Now go to sleep."  
  
There were a few minutes of quiet, and then a ripple ran through their building. Wendy's nightlight wobbled on her bedside table. Carla's cradle rocked.  
  
"What was that?" Wendy said. "Was that an earthquake?"  
  
The building tipped sideways, with a crack of wooden beams snapping. Carla shrieked as her cradle skidded across the floor. Wendy's nightlight fell off the table and smashed, plunging the room into total darkness. Her bed slid down the slanted floor and crashed into the wall. The building's wooden framework bowed outwards under the weight. Wendy screamed and scrambled out of bed. "Carla! Carla, what's happening?" She slipped on the tilted floor and clawed at the boards. Carla grabbed her from behind. "Get to the ladder!" There was no window in their little loft room, and barely any room to fly. Carla half-dragged Wendy to the ladder leading downstairs, and they clambered down it. The building shuddered again when Wendy was halfway down. She lost her grip on the ladder and fell with a scream.  
  
She landed in a sea of thick liquid mud. Carla grabbed her again and took off. She soared through the open doorway - Wendy's bare feet grazed the doorframe as they shot through it - and up into the air.  
  
"What about everyone else?" Wendy shouted. Carla didn't care about everyone else. Wendy screamed again, and something smashed into them. They were hurled back and spun over and over in the air. Carla beat her wings frantically.  
  
"It's a snake!" Wendy screamed. Carla hadn't even seen it. A darker shape loomed out of the night. A man shouted "Give them a taste of your poison, Cubellios!"  
  
Carla and Wendy were enveloped in a cloud of stinging gas. Carla drew in a single shocked breath that burned all the way down into her lungs. Her wings fluttered weakly.  
  
"Sky Dragon's... augh!" Wendy screamed, and kicked out wildly, creating a burst of wind that tore through the poison cloud. Carla wheezed. Her wings beat frantically. "Carla, go down!" Wendy shouted. They fell out of the sky and landed in a heap. The mud sucked at Wendy's arms and legs when she tried to haul herself out of it.  
  
"Help," she croaked. Her throat felt dry and raw. There were no lights on in the rest of the guild, not one. Where was everybody? Were they hurt?  
  
Wendy picked up Carla, dragged herself out of the mud and staggered into the main guildhall. The fire had been extinguished under a wave of mud. The building had yawed to one side like a sinking ship. "Master," Wendy gasped. "Where are you? What's going on?" There was no reply. Tears cut tracks through the mud smeared across her face.  
  
On the other side of the hall, the guild's communications lacrima stuck up out of the mire. Wendy lurched across the room to it, slipping and sliding and wading through knee-deep mud. When she touched it, the crystal glowed. "Fairy Tail!" Sudden noise, shouting and laughter, echoed out of the lacrima, deafening in the dark and quiet. "Hello? Hello!" Wendy had to shout to be heard over it, and it hurt. "This is Wendy from Cait Shelter! We're being attacked-"  
  
"Wendy, behind you!" Carla shouted.  
  
Wendy spun round and screamed. "Sky Dragon's Roar!" A hurricane exploded out of her mouth.  
  
Brain raised his staff. Green light swirled around the lacrima orb clutched in the skull's jaws, and burst out in a beam of dark energy. The spell sliced cleanly through the middle of Wendy's hurricane and hit her like a sledgehammer. Wendy was flung into the air and hit the opposite wall. She fell to the ground as limp as a rag doll.  
  
"Wendy!" Carla gasped. "Wendy! No!"  
  
Brain lifted one hand. Tendrils of dark energy wound around Wendy and lifted her off the ground. Her groan was abruptly cut off when the dark magic closed over her head.  
  
"Let her go!" Carla croaked, and threw herself at Brain.  
  
He knocked her out of the air with her staff. Carla was hurled into the lacrima. The crystal fell down and cracked. The communications link cut out.

* * *

Fairy Tail had been celebrating Natsu's return home for the third night in a row when Wendy's call came through. Now, everything was silent.  
  
Natsu gripped the lacrima tight and stared into the depths.  
  
"Was that a kid?" Gray said.  
  
"Master, do you know where Cait Shelter is? How quickly can we get there?" Erza asked.  
  
"She said 'Sky Dragon's Roar', right?" Natsu said. He wheeled around. "I'm taking this one!"


	28. Nobody Makes Any Good Decisions

“Juvia is one wishing to achieve dominion over the stars! O Spirit, heed her call and pass through the gate!” Nothing happened. Juvia swished Reticulum’s key through the air a few times, and scowled. “It is aware that Juvia has no desire to become a summoner mage.”  
  
“Maybe you just need to use first-person pronouns,” Ryos suggested.  
  
“Maybe you just need to start keeping Ashley on a leash,” Gajeel suggested. Juvia shot him a look. Gajeel took a step back. Juvia turned her attention back to the key in her hand.  
  
“I am one wishing to achieve dominion over the stars! O Spirit, heed my call and pass through the gate! Open, Gate of the Reticule, Reticulum!” The key jolted in her hand. “Yeek!” Juvia dropped it, and threw up a hand to cover her eyes against a flash of brilliant light.  
  
“Wow,” Ryos said, peeking between his fingers.  
  
“How did you know how to do that?” Gajeel said.  
  
“Juvia has observed Lucy,” Juvia said. A great copper-edged ring hung in the air between them. The glass lens at its centre was marked with a fine grid in dark wire. Juvia hesitated, and then addressed it. “Good morning." There was no apparent response. She continued anyway. “Juvia would like to express first that she has no interest in more than a temporary contract. Your previous mistress, Angel of the Oracion Seis, was evidently a specialist in espionage and information-gathering. A reticle is a device used in the assessment of the size or position of objects under observation. It is therefore apparent to Juvia that Reticulum’s function is in divining the location of certain objects. Juvia would be very grateful if it could locate a certain object for her.”  
  
Red lights flickered on in Reticulum’s top left corner, and then went off, and stayed off.  
  
“Do you think it can understand her?” Ryos said quietly to Gajeel.  
  
“Shut it, Juvia’s working,” Gajeel said absently.  
  
Ryos wrapped his arms around himself and waited gloomily. “If this doesn’t work, is she going to make it start raining acid again?”  
  
“It wasn’t acid, it was water. Normal boiling water.”  
  
“It felt like acid.”  
  
“Stop whinging. Are you a Dragon Slayer or not?”  
  
“If Reticulum does not wish to be helpful,” Juvia said slowly, “then Juvia regrets that she will have to feed Reticulum to one of her associates. Gajeel!” Gajeel grinned, baring his many, many razor-sharp teeth.  
  
“Juvia, how closely were you observing Lucy?” Ryos asked. Frantic green lights flashed across Reticulum’s lens.  
  
“Is Reticulum more inclined to assist Juvia now?” The answer was another, slower wave of green lights. “Juvia is glad. Locate Lucy Heartfilia’s stellar spirit keys.” The lens glowed green for a moment, and then the glow resolved into a landscape of treetops seen from above. Juvia prodded at the display and managed to roll the view around. “This is the southern part of the Worth Woodsea.”  
  
“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go save Ashley again,” Gajeel said, and stomped off, hauling Ryos behind him like a sack of potatoes.  
  
* * *  
  
“So she’s the dragon slayer of the sky,” Natsu said. “What does she eat?”  
  
“Air,” Carla said.  
  
“Is it tasty?”  
  
“Who knows?”  
  
“Isn’t that just breathing?” said Gray.  
  
In front of them, Erza was speaking to Cait Shelter’s guild master, Roubaul. The rest of the guild had gathered around the edges of the great tent, their faces wan and worried.  
  
“I had no idea that they were after Wendy, nabura!” Roubaul said. “I assumed that their goal was just to destroy the guild, and that Carla would be able to take Wendy to safety.” Carla’s cool expression cracked. She bowed her head and wrapped her shawl tighter around herself.  
  
“I’m sure Wendy will be all right! We’ll rescue her really soon, you’ll see!” Happy patted her shoulder.  
  
“I don’t recall granting you permission to touch me,” Carla said.  
  
Roubaul took another swig from his bottle. “I thought perhaps the time had come to account for our sins,” he said, liquor spilling into his beard, “...but apparently not.”  
  
Erza and Gray traded mystified glances, but then decided that whatever Cait Shelter’s sins were, they weren’t their problem.  
  
“Why aren’t you trying to rescue her yourself?” Erza said.  
  
“There’s nothing I would be able to do,” Roubaul said bluntly. “My age is wearing on me, nabura! The further I go from this place, the weaker I am. I think I know where the Oracion Seis will have made their camp, and it’s too far for me to travel.”  
  
Erza’s forehead creased. Makarov wouldn’t care how weak it made him; if someone had taken one of his mages, he’d crawl after them and try to gnaw their ankles to death.  
  
“You say you know where they’ll have made their camp?”  
  
“There used to be a city in the southmost part of the Woodsea. It’s been a long time since I was last there, but there are some surviving ruins.” He hesitated for a moment, and then added, “The Seis are trying to awaken an ancient weapon called Nirvana. This old city was the capital of the people who created it. It’s the most likely place for a camp.”  
  
“Fine! What are we waiting for, then?” Natsu demanded, and turned back towards the gates of the guild compound. “Let’s go!” He was charging off even as the gates swung shut behind them. “All right! Where’s this city?” Feathery wings sprouted from Carla’s back. She shot into the air, grabbed the trailing end of his scarf and yanked hard. “Augh!” Natsu was hauled back, his eyes bulging out of his head, and crashed to the grouund.  
  
“Don’t be a fool!” She sounded like a schoolmistress. “We can’t just charge blindly into a fight we have no chance of winning!”  
  
Natsu looked up at her from the ground and said, “Hey, you’re just like Happy!”  
  
“Excuse me?”  
  
Erza stepped in. “We don’t intend to take risks, Carla. We’ll be sure to consider the circumstances carefully before we take any action.”  
  
“What’s wrong with that boy? Doesn’t he understand the situation?” Carla huffed. She folded her arms and fluttered. “Of course I’m worried about Wendy, but charging in recklessly will only make the situation worse!”  
  
“If they were out to kill her they’d have killed her back at the guild,” Gray pointed out. Carla winced.  
  
“Gray’s correct. We have to assume that they need her in some way, most likely for her healing abilities. She won’t be harmed.” Erza spoke with rather more assurance than she felt. “We’ll consider the situation and retrieve Wendy if we can, then wait for the reinforcements from the other guilds to arrive. If we can’t retrieve Wendy, we’ll just have to wait for the reinforcements.” She turned a scowl on Natsu. “Is that understood?” She’d made it clear enough before they even left Magnolia Town that Natsu was accompanying them only under sufferance, and she wouldn’t tolerate a repeat of the disaster with Phantom Lord.  
  
“Aye!” Natsu chirped.  
  
Carla seemed relieved that Erza was in charge, or in charge of Natsu, at least; she unfolded her arms and the end of her tail stopped flicking back and forth.  
  
“I appreciate that you’ve come to help us. Our own mages… don’t really have the capability to fight opponents like the Oracion Seis.”  
  
Erza smiled. “Please don’t think anything of it. Since our guild is allied with yours against the Seis, it would be a disgrace to Fairy Tail if we didn’t assist.”  
  
“Hey! Carla!” Natsu had turned around at the front. “How come Wendy’s a Dragon Slayer, anyway? Is she a real one or a fake Laxus one?”  
  
“A fake Laxus one?” Carla repeated blankly.  
  
While Carla’s attention was diverted, Erza fell back to walk next to Gray and asked quietly, “Did you notice that none of the other guild members were injured at all?”  
  
Gray nodded. “And even if that old man can’t go, why couldn’t he send some of the other mages?” He nodded decisively. “That guy’s definitely hiding something. Hey…” He blanched. “They wouldn’t just have turned the kid over, would they?”  
  
“Carla is certain that there was a genuine attack, and I don’t doubt her-” Erza glanced ahead at the little white cat, “But there’s definitely something strange going on. We could be walking into a trap.”  
  
“If there’s a life at stake, we’ve got no choice,” Gray said. “For the sake of the guild’s honour, we can’t refuse to answer a call for help.”  
  
They passed into the forest, and the trees closed in overhead.  
  
* * *  
  
Lucy was woken by a strange noise. A thud, and then a scraping noise. Metal against stone. What was that?  
  
“Ugh, this thing’s heavy! It’s slowing me down,” a man said.  
  
Another man answered, “There is no man faster than you, Racer.” Lucy didn’t recognise either voice. Her forehead furrowed. Who on earth...  
  
Her memory caught up with her. She’d been kidnapped. Again. Crap! She stayed very still, trying to pretend she was still unconscious. It was cold, and she was lying on a floor of rough stone. A cell? A cave? Her arm ached. She cracked one eye open. Her wrists were cuffed in front of her - which would be useful, if she were Gajeel and could bite through metal - and there was a loose bandage knotted around the gashes on her forearm. There was a little red mark on her inner elbow, too. An antivenin injection. So she wasn’t meant to die.  
  
Actually, on second thought, she just wasn’t meant to die _from the snake bite_. Her keys were gone, of course.  
  
“Hey!” A shadow loomed over her, and Cobra booted her in the ribs. Lucy jolted and wheezed as the breath was knocked out of her lungs. “You can’t fool me, sleeping beauty. I can hear your heart beating faster.”  
  
Ugh, what a creep! Lucy opened her eyes and pushed herself up onto her elbows. She’d been right about one thing, it was a cave. A chapel, maybe, because there were rough-hewn benches cut into each wall and an altar covered with a faded, tattered cloth at the far end. Besides her and Cobra, there were four other people there. The rest of the Oracion Seis? A huge man with masses of orange hair and a polygonal face, like Erza’s friend Wally, perched on the edge of the other bench. He was clutching a huge book with the jewel symbol on the front to his chest like a little kid with a security blanket. There was a boy who seemed to be asleep, and Lucy couldn’t see his face well enough to figure out if he was deliberately made up like a slutty panda or if someone had taken the opportunity to draw on him. A tall man with a staff and tattoos all over his face stood in front of the altar. Lastly, a man with a really pointy nose appeared in the entrance to the cave, dragging a huge metal box after him. That was what had made the scraping noise. The box was the rough shape of a person, but twice the size. A coffin?  
  
“What’s going on?” she said. “What am I doing here?” Her voice came out weak and wavering. The tall man at the altar turned slightly, and looked at Lucy as if she were a cockroach. She shrank back.  
  
“You? You have no significance here. Your presence isn’t part of our plan.” He smiled faintly. “You’re superfluous to requirements.”  
  
Lucy didn’t like the sound of being superfluous to requirements.  
  
“This is the bitch who took out Angel, not some snack I brought home for Cubellios!” Cobra objected. “All right, also a snack for Cubellios, but we ought to punish her!”  
  
Lucy liked the sound of punishment even less.  
  
“And that, Cobra, is why I haven’t killed your little souvenir outright. But we have more important concerns at the moment than avenging Angel’s defeat.”  
  
Cobra fumed, stuck his hands in his pockets and leant against the wall. There was a rasp of scales, and Cubellios slid over Lucy's lap. She yelped and tried to kick the snake off her, but it weighed more than she did. Cobra stifled a snort and, as Cubellios reared up to nudge his hand with her nose, absently rubbed his knuckles against the back of her head.  
  
Lucy took a deep breath and tried to stay calm, and then remembered Cobra could hear that and tried to stay calm without looking like she was trying to stay calm. Juvia and Gajeel would be looking for her already. How long had it been? She couldn't tell if the dim half-light coming through the cave entrance was dawn or twilight. It didn't matter, Lucy decided. She'd survived all kinds of dark mages, crazy soul-eating monsters, guild wars, Jellal Fernandes, an Etherion detonation, one of Laxus Dreyar's psychotic tantrums and fighting one of the Seis already, she wasn't about to get killed by this pack of tools. Nope. No way. Not ever.  
  
Of course, all those other times she'd had help and her keys. Lucy bit the inside of her cheek and stayed quiet.  
  
Racer hauled the coffin up to the end of the cave. The guy with the staff - Lucy figured he had to be the boss - had to step out of the way. "Sorry, Brain."  
  
Lucy definitely wasn't going to get killed by people who codenamed themselves Cobra, Racer and Brain. How old were they when they came up with those, fourteen?  
  
The boss stepping aside had revealed something else, though. A ragged bundle was lying in front of the altar. In the dim light, Lucy couldn't figure out for a moment what she was looking at, then Racer let the coffin fall against the wall with an almighty crash, the bundle jolted, and oh, _crap_ , that was a little kid.  
  
"Excellent timing. Good morning, Wendy."  
  
The little girl sat up, rubbing the crook of her elbow, and blinked at them. Lucy could pinpoint the moment she realised what was going on. Her eyes went wide. She shrank in on herself.  
  
"Pretty much," Cobra agreed, and laughed.  
  
Wendy's gaze skittered around the cave. "Wh-where is this?"  
  
“This was once the centre of a great ancient city. When the time came for certain rituals to be performed, the city’s priestess would seclude herself in this cave to listen to the voices of the gods,” Brain said, apparently under the impression that Wendy wanted a lecture on anthropology.  
  
Wendy hugged herself, hands fisted in the fabric of her patterned nightdress. “Why did you bring me here? Where’s Carla?”  
  
"We've been aware of your gift with healing magic for some time. You’re going to use it on our behalf. We need a certain person restored to health.”  
  
"Why stop at one?" said the polygonal guy hugging the account books, with a beatific smile. "Such a valuable magic should be used to the utmost, yes?"  
  
“You’re the Oracion Seis, aren’t you?” Wendy said. “You’re bad people! I won’t help you!”  
  
“Oh, but you will,” Brain said. “You will.” Lucy considered the probable consequences of refusal, and flinched back from the thought. Brain smiled, in a way that suggested he was considering the same thing, with rather more relish. “He will be revived. There is no doubt of that.” Brain was a grown man, standing over a girl who looked younger than Ryos; he had an unfair advantage when it came to looming.  
  
Cobra grinned. “Nirvana's as good as ours!”  
  
Brain glanced back over his shoulder. “Cobra, Hoteye, Racer. You three are to continue searching for Nirvana.”  
  
Hoteye frowned. “Surely, if we are to revive the gentleman in question, there is no need for such measures."  
  
“We must account for all eventualities,” Brain said. “Midnight and I will remain here.”  
  
Cobra nudges the sleeping guy's carpet carefully, with the toe of his boot. He didn't stir. “Seems like it’d be trouble to get him to move… Ah, whatever. Let’s go search. Don’t lose the blonde.”  
  
"It already took an hour getting the coffin back here," Racer grumbled.  
  
"How about a little wager, to lift your spirits?" Hoteye suggested. "The first to find Nirvana wins one million jewels!"  
  
"You call that a small wager?" Cobra scooped up Cubellios and draped her around his shoulders. They headed out of the cave. Lucy wasn't pinned down by Cubellios's weight any more, but she couldn't really grab Wendy and make a dash for it without Brain noticing.  
  
“What is this magic?” Wendy said, in a small voice. “Nirvana…”  
  
“It’s a magic to make light and dark change places with each other,” Brain answered. That meant... absolutely nothing. He went to the coffin and touched the metal. The heavy padlocks snapped open, one by one. “Wendy, this is the man you are to heal.”  
  
“I’ll never do it!” Wendy protested, shaking her head violently as the chains locking the box shut fell away.  
  
“You will,” Brain told her bluntly. “Or perhaps I should say, you must.” The lid of the coffin opened. Wendy gasped. Lucy screamed. Her body jerked as if she’d been electrocuted.  
  
“No - he can’t -” Her voice rose to a strangled shriek. “Do you know who that _is_?” Jellal’s head hung limply on his chest. His eyes were closed. There were chains wound around his arms and torso to keep him restrained.  
  
“His name is Jellal. He was once a member of the Council,” Brain said. “In other words… he knows the location of Nirvana.”  
  
“Jellal,” Wendy whispered, staring up at him. Her eyes had gone wide and her mouth hung open. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. Lucy could barely breathe. An iron band had locked around her ribs. Her heartbeat thrashed in her ears. Jellal was alive? The Oracion Seis wanted to keep him alive? What was their plan, to murder everyone on the planet?  
  
“He was reduced to this sorry state after being stabbed and exposed to Etherion,” Brain said. “You are the only one who can revive him, Wendy. You owe him a debt, don’t you?”  
  
“You can’t possibly heal him!” Lucy yelped. “He’s insane! He’s a murderer!” She goggled at Brain. “You want to team up with him? Did you not hear what happened to the last people who teamed up with him?”  
  
Brain made a casual gesture, and a whip of seething green energy slammed Lucy into the cave wall. She tumbled to the ground and sprawled there in a heap. Wendy shrieked. “I taught him almost everything he knows,” Brain said dismissively. “I can handle him.”  
  
Brain really had no excuse for not knowing better. Why on earth had he sent all his other minions away? Did he want to chat in private, or something? How ignorant did you have to be, bringing no better reinforcements to a chat with Jellal Fernandes than a sleeping slutty panda?  
  
Wendy was looking fearfully at Lucy. “You know him?”  
  
“He tried to kill me and all my friends!” Lucy snapped.  
  
Wendy’s lower lip trembled. Her eyes filled up with tears. “I - I suppose he did…”  
  
Lucy was barely listening. She was staring at Jellal. “How is he even still alive?” She could see where Erza had run him through, two matching gashes in his chest washed clean by seawater.  
  
“Alive?” Brain queried. “That would be debatable. The man is a ghost possessed by a ghost. It’s rather pitiful… nevertheless, Wendy, you owe him a debt.”  
  
“...What debt?” Lucy said.  
  
“He saved my life,” Wendy said. “I loved him…” Tears dripped down her face. “I heard rumours about him doing bad things, but I didn’t believe them… the Jellal I knew would never have done things like that… someone must have been manipulating him!” Oh God. He’d managed to suck her in before he went completely insane, just like Erza.  
  
“Wendy,” Lucy said. “I saw him blow somebody's head off. One of his friends-” That time, she didn’t even see the flash of energy before she was smashed into the wall. “Uuungh!” Wendy flinched back. Lucy fell down, wheezing, arms pressed against her ribs.  
  
“If you interrupt again, you will die,” Brain said. Lucy didn’t think she could manage a coherent sentence right then anyway. “Wendy. Revive him.”  
  
Wendy looked up at Jellal. His skin was ghastly white. His lips were almost blue.  
  
“Can I… can I have time to think about…”  
  
He’d turned Simon’s head into chunky salsa! What was there to think about?  
  
“There is no time,” Brain said. His voice is very flat. “With the stasis spells no longer operating, he has no more than a few minutes left. The only question is what will kill him first. He’s lost massive amounts of blood and punctured a lung, perhaps both. The Eternano poisoning alone would have killed a lesser mage within minutes-”  
  
Wendy covered her head with her hands. "Stop!"  
  
Lucy pushed herself up on one elbow. She could convince Wendy not to heal Jellal, easily. ‘That’s not the Jellal you knew, he lost his mind eight years ago. It’d be a kindness to let him die. Like putting a sick puppy to sleep. And trust me, he is one very sick puppy.’  
  
Brain looked down at Wendy, huddled on the floor, and twisted one hand. Suddenly, he was holding a dagger. The blade glittered in the dim sunrise light. With a sickening swooping feeling in her stomach, Lucy remembered that if Wendy refused to fix Jellal, the Seis had no use for her.  
  
She curled her fingers into claws and raked her hands down her face. It was a terrifying conclusion, but... healing Jellal was their best chance of getting away. Wendy would be killed if they didn’t, and Lucy didn’t like her odds of surviving until her team arrived when the whole Seis were clearly utterly out of their minds. Brain was wrong, if he thought he could control the psychopath; Jellal would blast him and walk out within ten seconds. If Lucy and Wendy survived those ten seconds, or if Brain could put up enough of a fight, they could try to escape in the confusion. At least he didn’t have any minions or a seat on the council this time. Just ridiculous quantities of magical power. And she didn’t even have her keys.  
  
It was almost certain death, but… the alternative was absolutely certain death.  
  
“Do it, Wendy. Fix him.”  
  
Brain summoned up a handful of squirming green energy, and then stopped as he realised what she’d actually said.  
  
“What?” Wendy blinked at her.  
  
“There’s no practical alternative,” Lucy said. She licked her lips. Her mouth felt desert-dry. “If you don’t fix him, that guy’s just going to stab you.”  
  
Wendy flinched again and skittered away from Brain. “Are you sure?”  
  
Lucy closed her fists tight and said, in the firmest voice she could muster up, “Yes.” They were both going to die.  
  
Wendy let out a great shuddering breath. She seemed relieved, though, to have had the decision taken out of her hands. She stood on tiptoes and pressed both hands flat against Jellal’s breastbone.  
  
It took… probably only a few minutes, but it felt like hours, time stretching out around her while Lucy desperately tried not to think about Simon, or Sho, or throw up. She clambered to her feet, both hands braced against the cavern wall.  
  
The chains rattled as Jellal stirred. He half-fell forward, and the chains brought him up short.  
  
Wendy staggered back and fell to her knees. Lucy grabbed the back of her nightshirt and hauled her away from the coffin. Jellal yanked at the chains, there was a flash of light, and the heavy iron disintegrated. The links fell apart and rained down around his feet. He stumbled out of the coffin, and stood there, swaying a little, head down.  
  
“Very good,” Brain said, with genuine approval.  
  
Jellal opened his eyes slowly, and blinked as if the light hurt. Lucy slung Wendy behind her and backed against the wall. Jellal’s expression was… it was nothing, he’d showed more emotion when he was unconscious! Lucy didn’t know what to do! Jellal’s hands clenched into fists.  
  
“Jellal?” Brain prompted. He didn’t respond, just lifted his head and looked around the cave. Lucy was frozen to the spot, her knuckles white on the fabric of Wendy’s nightdress. The little girl had started to whimper. Tears spilled from her eyes. She covered her face with her hands.  
  
“Jellal!” Brain said sharply, like he was trying to get the attention of a disobedient toddler, and grasped his arm. Jellal’s head snapped around. Brain started back. Jellal tore his arm free of Brain’s grip and shoved his palm into Brain’s face. Brain didn’t even have time to shout before he was completely swallowed up by a massive bolt of energy. For a split second, he was visible as a shadow inside the dim light, and then he was hurled back into the altar. The wall behind him exploded into a cloud of stinging gravel. The whole cave rattled. Lucy screamed, grabbed hold of Wendy and flung her other arm up to protect her head. The blast threw both of them to the ground, hurled the sleeping boy from his carpet and knocked the giant coffin to the ground with a thundering crash.  
  
Jellal scanned the cave again, as the dust settled. The sleeping boy hadn’t so much as stirred; he lay on his side on the floor, his breathing deep and even. Lucy huddled against the wall. Wendy crouched behind her, letting out choked little sobs. Jellal looked them over. Lucy’s heart pounded. Her head swam. Black dots drifted in front of her eyes.  
  
Jellal turned away and walked out.  
  
Lucy sat still for a moment, barely able to believe they were both still alive, and then scrambled to her feet. “Come on!” She was halfway to the cave’s entrance when she realised Wendy wasn’t behind her. She spun around. Wendy took a tottering step away from the wall, swayed, and fell forward onto her face. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid! Wendy’d just done some really impressive magic, of course she wouldn’t be up to running anywhere! Lucy doubled back, grabbed Wendy around the middle and hauled her off the ground. “We have to get out of here!”  
  
It was too late. They’d already lost their opportunity. Brain’s whips of green energy wrapped around them and hurled them both away from the cave entrance, into the coffin. The doors slammed shut. The chains snapped closed. Lucy screamed and pounded her fists against the doors, but it was no use. They were trapped in the dark.  
  
Brain climbed to his feet. “That… I did not expect…” He brushed rock dust from his coat. “Still, I have only myself to blame. I should have prepared better restraints. Still, he never used to be so hostile towards me, I am certain of it-” A sudden thought struck him. Even in his unconscious state, could Jellal have been able to overhear their discussion of Nirvana? Did he mean to steal it for himself? Hot rage flooded through him. The ingratitude! Nirvana belonged to him, Brain! He would never permit anyone to steal it from him! “Cobra!” he roared. “Can you hear me? Jellal has fled! Go after him! Wherever he goes… that is where Nirvana lies!”  
  
Half a mile away, Cobra listened with his head cocked to one side. “Yeah,” he said. “I hear you. Loud and clear.”  
  
* * *  
  
Erza had intentionally been skirting clearings, sticking to the thick forest where she hoped the trees would conceal their movements, and now she was leading the team down a narrow gully with high earth banks on either side. It would be best to get as close as possible before making any attempt to retrieve Wendy, and that meant keeping the Seis unaware of their presence as long as possible. On the other hand, it would be equally difficult for them to see any enemy approaching. The trees were so huge that the three of them together couldn’t get their arms around a trunk, and their leaves spread out into a thick roof that locked out the sunlight. The thin shafts that managed to spear through the foliage illuminated only floating dust. Natsu lagged at the back of the group, taking deep breaths. Erza was counting on his sense of smell to alert them to lurking enemies.  
  
Natsu stopped. He scrambled up one side of the gully and looked around.  
  
“What is it?” Happy asked.  
  
“Fire Dragon’s Roar!” Flames burst from Natsu’s mouth, lit up the dimness and scorched the treetrunks around them. A wave of heat rolled over them.  
  
“What do you think you’re doing?” Carla squawked.  
  
“I heard something running around out there,” Natsu said. “Hey! Stop hiding! Come out and fight!”  
  
Dozens of small heads popped out from behind the trees and over both edges of the gully. The creatures were smaller than Happy, with pink spotted fur and bushy tails.  
  
“Goblins,” Gray said. “Good thing you saved us, flame brain. They could have done some serious damage.” The goblins emerged from behind the trees. Most of them were holding clubs. “Wait, what?” The goblins attacked, rolling up like woodlice and throwing themselves over the edge of the gully. The tide swept Natsu over the edge, as well, and as soon as they hit the bottom the goblins uncurled and lashed out with their little wooden clubs.  
  
“Ow!” Gray said, as a goblin battered at his kneecap. “Ice-Make: Hammer!” More bursts of fire lit up the forest as Natsu retaliated.  
  
“Stop that! We’re in a forest!” Carla snapped at him.  
  
“What’s that got to do with it?” Natsu said, and blew more fire at some trees.  
  
Erza kicked the vermin away, requipped into the white-and-gold of the Lightning Empress armour and swung the spear up. “Three, two, one!” Gray dropped into a crouch. The spear discharged. Electricity crackled around them and blew shards of bark from the trees. Goblins weren’t any smarter than rats. That should frighten them-  
  
The goblins attacked again. Erza leapt back and swung her spear around her, tossing goblins away with every swipe. This wasn’t right! Goblins were just pests. Romeo Conbolt could deal with them. And they certainly didn’t keep attacking once magic had started flying around!  
  
In addition, if they were real goblins, Natsu should have been able to smell them long before he heard them.  
  
“They’re a distraction! There’s someone else here!” The goblins had been keeping even the two fliers’ attention on the ground. Erza looked up. Two dozen mages in red hoods stood at the edge of the gully and, among them, a green monster twice Erza’s own height. “Wyvern!”  
  
Natsu leapt into the opposite bank and rebounded, flames igniting around his feet. He spun in midair to bring a powerful kick smashing down on the wyvern’s head. “Fire Dragon’s Claw!” The mages in the red hoods shrieked and scrambled back, clutching their sketchbooks to their chest. Sketchbooks? Pict Magic.  
  
“Cats, get us both up there!” Happy and Carla figured out her plan immediately. Natsu was hanging down the wyvern’s back, one arm around its neck, the other punching it in the head. Happy and Carla shot around the gathered dark mages, evading the wyvern teetering on the edge of the gully, and dropped Erza and Gray on either side. Erza requipped to the Heaven’s Wheel armour. Gray dropped down and set both palms against the ground.  
  
“Ice-Make: Geyser!”  
  
“Blumenblatt!”  
  
A spiked tower of ice erupted from the ground, flinging red-hooded mages in all directions. Erza swept through the crowd, razor edges following behind her like the train of a gown. The dark mages fell, howling. That only left one, staggering to his feet. Happy smashed into him head-first. “Max Speed Attack!” The dark mage went down, wheezing as the air was violently expelled from his lungs. Happy fluttered up, beaming. “Carla, did you see-?”  
  
Carla was staring open-mouthed at the other three. Happy wilted. The wyvern toppled over, with a crash that shook the ground under their feet.  
  
Some way away, Cobra had been half-listening to the fight as he trailed Jellal through the woods, and hoping Jellal wouldn’t decide to swing in that direction next. He had no idea where Jellal was going. His walk through the forest seemed completely aimless. It might be the endless boring treescape throwing him off, but Cobra had a sinking feeling that they were going in circles. This would be so much easier if he could just pick the location out of Jellal’s thoughts, but the other man’s mind felt like an empty void. Was this a trick? He would be able to tell if he had been tricked into following a thought projection. Right?  
  
Two people who could get around his ability to hear thoughts in as many days. Now that was just shitty luck.  
  
He heard the crash, and glanced around. Jellal looked up, too. He hesitated for a moment, and then headed towards the fight.  
  
Great. Just great.  
  
Natsu balanced on the wyvern’s head, one fist raised over his head, and whooped.  
  
“It’s only Pict Magic, asshat,” Gray said. The wyvern disappeared, dropping Natsu to the ground with a startled yell.  
  
“It was brave of the boy, to volunteer to pin the wyvern down,” Carla said.  
  
“...Yes,” Erza said.  
  
Natsu grabbed one of the dark mages by the hood and pulled him up. “Tell us where your base is!”  
  
“Who are you? What’s your purpose here?” Gray said.  
  
“Red Hoods,” the mage wheezed. “We’re a guild under the… the Seis…”  
  
Natsu shook him some more. “Which way is your base?”  
  
“I can’t tell you that!”  
  
Natsu reared back and drew in a deep breath.  
  
“Augh! Okay, don’t blast me! Our base is outside Wintercherry Town!”  
  
“Huh?” Natsu frowned, dropped the dark mage, and looked back at his teammates. “Didn’t the old guy say they were based in that old city? In the forest?”  
  
Erza felt another sharp prickle of suspicion, but it was averted when Gray rolled his eyes and said “What the flame brain means is, point us to the Seis’ headquarters.”  
  
“Oi!” Natsu said.  
  
“I can’t tell you that!” the dark mage protested.  
  
“I see,” Erza said. She drew a spear from her armoury, stepped forward, and pressed the tip of the blade to his throat. “If you would rather die than betray your overlords, so be it. I’m sure they will appreciate your sacrifice.”  
  
There was a long moment of almost total silence, except for Natsu and Gray squabbling in the background.  
  
“They’re over that way,” the dark mage said, and pointed.  
  
“Thank you for your cooperation,” Erza said, spun the spear in her hands and slammed the butt between his eyes. The mage slumped to the ground. Erza looked back over her shoulder. Natsu and Gray had been scrapping, but as soon as they saw her looking they slung their arms around each other and smiled broadly. She was glad that Natsu’s forced absence didn’t seem to have damaged their friendship.  
  
From the corner of her eye, she saw somebody on their feet. She turned, drawing her spear back for a lunge and a swift thrust, and stopped. Her eyes went wide. He was just standing there, like an accusing ghost. He wore the same clothes he’d been wearing at the tower. She could see the gashes where she’d put the swords through him.  
  
“Jellal?”  
  
Gray whipped around. “Shit!”  
  
“Who’s that guy?” said Natsu.  
  
Gray said, “It’s Pict Magic. It’s got to be-”  
  
Erza stumbled back.  
  
“Erza?” Gray said. “Get it together!”  
  
Jellal started. He looked at Erza, and a faint tentative smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Erza?”  
  
Erza lunged at him. His eyes widened, but he didn’t have time to react before she threw him to the ground. The spear fell from her hand. It was replaced by a trench knife. She brought the knife down, with an inarticulate scream. Jellal threw his hands up defensively, and the knife cut a deep gash into the side of his arm.  He cried out and blasted Erza off him. Cobra swore, and leapt in to retrieve Jellal before he could get himself put into another coma. Erza was hurled into the trunk of a tree and fell into a heap at the bottom. Natsu howled with rage and charged at Jellal. Cobra stepped between them.  
  
“Move!” Natsu shouted, drawing his fist back. Cobra barely needed his ability. Right arm, straight punch. He shifted his weight to the other side, knocked the blow aside with the flat of his palm, and kneed Natsu in the stomach as he lurched forward. Natsu recovered quicker than he would have expected. Roundhouse kick, right leg. Cobra caught Natsu by the shin and shouted “Cubellios!” Natsu was about to light his leg on fire. Cobra dropped him in a hurry. Natsu leapt back. Both his fists ignited.  
  
“Natsu, watch out!” Gray yelled. Natsu raised both fists, ready to meet an attack from Cobra, and Cubellios bit him. He started, and looked down at the snake hanging onto his leg.  
  
“Idiot!” Gray yelled. “Get out of the way!” He slammed one fist into the other palm. “Ice-Make: Lances!”  
  
Natsu dropped flat. Cobra took a step and pivoted, and the frozen spears shot past him on either side. Every lance that passed within ten feet of Jellal was torn apart in flashes of golden light.  
  
Erza was getting to her feet.  
  
“Come with me, idiot!” Cobra grabbed Jellal’s arm, the uninjured one. “Cubellios, we’re out of here!” Killing the other little punks could wait. Keeping hold of Jellal, making sure he didn’t get himself killed and getting their hands on Nirvana was priority. Cubellios reared up and opened her mouth, releasing a jet of poison gas. Within moments, the Fairies were swallowed by a thick choking cloud. Cobra hauled Jellal away. “Come on!”  
  
He got a solid quarter-mile between them and the enemy mages before he slowed down to listen. He could hear the sound of his own and Jellal’s boots on the forest floor and the rasp of Cubellios’s scales over fallen leaves. Beyond that, though, he could hear coughing and wheezing. The other mages had stumbled out of Cubellios's poison fog, but they weren't following.  
  
Wasn’t that redhaired girl the one who’d had such a good stab at killing Jellal in the first place? Pun not intended. “Pretty bad luck, running into them!” Jellal didn’t answer. Were they chasing after him? No, that couldn’t be right. They wouldn’t have been so surprised to see him, and besides, it was only the six Seis themselves that knew they even had the guy. Angel wouldn’t have talked that fast, and if she had they’d have sent more than three people along. What were they there for?  
  
Well, it didn’t really matter. The pink-haired one was going to be dead soon, and the others wouldn’t be hard to handle. They were the Oracion Seis, weren’t they?  
  
Jellal looked shellshocked. He was holding his forearm where Erza Scarlet had knifed him. Blood dripped between his fingers. His eyes were wide and stunned, like he’d taken a blow to the head. Still woozy from the coma and all? If the reason Cobra couldn’t hear his thoughts was just because the guy’s brain wasn’t working right, that’d be good.  
  
Ugh. When Brain had recruited the five of them, he’d talked about security, power, respect. He hadn’t mentioned babysitting concussed supervillains.  
  
“That was pretty ungrateful,” he said, “running out on Brain. Where were you going?”  
  
There was a moment of silence. Jellal looked around. His mouth opened, and closed again, and then he said, “I was looking for a clothes shop.”  
  
Cobra stopped, and stared at him. “What,” he said. “Why?”  
  
“To get new clothes in,” Jellal said. He picked at the fabric across his chest. There were two neat holes in it, and probably, not that Cobra could be bothered to check, two matching holes in the back.  
  
“That’s some messed-up priorities you got there,” Cobra said. He looked Jellal up and down. The guy was a little taller than he was, but whatever, it was close enough. He exhaled, focused, and pulled a bundle of spare clothes out of his requip armoury. He wasn’t great at it, but he could manage some spare outfits and a couple of snacks for Cubellios. "Okay?” Jellal accepted the bundle. Cobra gestured for Cubellios to slide up behind him, just in case, and stuck his hands in his pockets. “We went to a lot of trouble to get you healed, you know. You can’t just run off instead of paying us back. You know what we want, right?”  
  
Jellal looked around at the trees and said slowly, “I’m beginning to think that I do.”  
  
Cobra waited for a moment, but Jellal didn’t say anything else. “So you’ll find Nirvana for us?” It sounded too much like a question.  
  
Jellal’s gaze flickered from Cobra to Cubellios. He turned away and looked around. “Well?” Cobra prompted.  
  
“I’m looking,” Jellal said testily, and closed his eyes. Cobra waited. Cobra waited a minute longer.  
  
“How long is this going to take?”  
  
Jellal opened his eyes, and pointed. “It’s that way.”  
  
* * *  
  
It took a minute for the iron bands that seemed to have clamped around the Fairies’ ribs to loosen and for them to be able to breathe again.  
  
“It could have been more Pict Magic,” Gray said, without much conviction.  
  
Erza shook her head. “We took out all of the Red Hoods. Natsu would have smelt them, if there were more lurking around. In any case, how would they know?”  
  
Natsu was looking between them. "Who was that guy?" His eyes were narrowed and his canines seemed to be even sharper and pointier than usual. He was angry.  
  
"Jellal," Gray said. "Looked like him, anyway."  
  
"The guy from the tower?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"But Erza killed him!" Natsu looked at Erza. She was sitting silently, with her knees drawn up to her chest.  
  
Was there any way he could have survived? It was something she’d considered much earlier, after the Fantasia festival. She had driven two swords through Jellal’s chest. One in the centre of his chest, under the breastbone. One slanting up under his ribs on the right side. She had probably missed his heart. Its heart. Loke wouldn’t have kept searching what was left of the tower after he had found her. If she had been able to survive Etherion’s detonation - it would have required immense durability, but immense durability went hand-in-hand with immense power. She had dismissed the possibility that Mystogan could be Jellal; she had no actual idea what was going on there, but nobody had time to run an island dictatorship, sit on the Council _and_ work as one of Fairy Tail’s S-rank mages.  
  
This, though…  
  
“I think it's him,” she said. "He must be with the Seis now."  
  
"Then let's go after him!" Natsu said, leaping to his feet. "You beat him last time, you can beat him again now!" He took a step in the direction that the Seis and Jellal had retreated in, staggered, and fell flat on his face.  
  
Erza frowned, and stood up. "Was that snake venomous?"  
  
Gray scrambled to Natsu's side. “Ow! I’m going to kick that guy’s ass,” Natsu said, pushing himself up. “It’s fine, let’s go!” Two puncture marks stood out red and inflamed on the back of his calf. Of course it was venomous. They would have realised earlier, if Jellal's sudden appearance hadn't distracted them.  
  
"He's no use to the mission like this," Erza said. "And we can't allow him to die. Gray, give me your belt."  
  
Gray reached for it automatically, and then hesitated. "Why?"  
  
"I'm going to cut off his leg."  
  
“Fine,” Natsu said.  
  
"No," Gray said. "That's a stupid idea. He won't be of any use hopping around on one leg, either."  
  
“I’ll get a peg leg, like a pirate,” Natsu said. “Arrr!” He fell back on the ground as his arms gave way. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead, and there was a feverish glitter in his eyes. “Happy, you’ll be my parrot, right?”  
  
Happy wailed. "Erza's going to cut off Natsu's leg!"  
  
“We’re not cutting his leg off!” Gray snapped. “There’s other options. We don’t have to jump straight to amputation!”  
  
"If it's a question of his life or a limb-"  
  
"I’m not scared,” Natsu said. “Bring it on!”  
  
The snake's venom caused delirium, Carla decided. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me." The Fairies looked around; Erza raising a claymore, Gray hanging on to her arm, Natsu doing a hazy pirate impression, Happy close to a hysterical fit. "Wendy will be able to cure him.” Erza looked around. “I believe I mentioned that she’s a capable healer.”  
  
“We don’t have much time,” Erza said. “The poison will circulate further with every minute.”  
  
“Then we’d better get on with it,” Gray said.  
  
“...Agreed,” Erza said. “Gray, take Natsu. Jellal-" She let out a long breath. "We'll deal with that next.”  
  
Gray scooped Natsu up and tossed him over his shoulder. Natsu made a noise that sounded like _eurgh_.  
  
"Transportation..."  
  
"If you have a problem with it, then next time don't get bitten," Gray suggested.  
  
Erza requipped to the Black Wing Armour and went on ahead. Gray followed close behind her, and the two cats brought up the rear. Deeper in the forest, the trees changed. On one side were the same massive treetrunks and thick canopy, and on the other, the trees were thin and twisted and as black as if they’d been burned. It was as though a boundary had been drawn on the ground. Gray stopped and looked around for a moment, to be sure that this wasn't where they'd had the fight with the dark guild, when Natsu had been spraying so much fire around.  
  
"I’m not sure what this is,” Erza called back. Her voice echoed strangely. “It could be some sort of malevolent magic. Be on your guard.”  
  
"Nice," Gray said, under his breath.  
  
He was the first of them to realise something was wrong. Erza was scanning the forest ahead of them. The two cats were in the air. As Gray stopped and heaved Natsu up higher on his shoulder - ignoring his pathetic moans - he felt the earth shiver under his feet. Someone less accustomed to moving over ice and snow would probably never have noticed.  
  
Gray looked around. His eyes widened. "Ice-Make: Shield Wall!" The wall of ice solidified the instant before a tsunami of liquified earth crashed against it. Mud slopped over the top of the wall from the force of the impact and spattered Gray's shoulders, and the ice cracked. The weight of the earth it held back forced the cracks open further, into gaping fissures. How many tons-  
  
"Get back before the levee breaks!" Erza shouted. They both spun away and ran, Natsu bouncing up and down on Gray's shoulder. Behind them, the wall burst open and tons of mud flooded through. Gray clapped his hands together.  
  
"Ice-Make: Lances!"  
  
The spears thudded into the side of a tree. Erza scrambled up them like a ladder and helped Gray haul himself up beside her. The wave of mud rolled around the trees. It would be waist-deep if they were down there; they'd have been bogged down and unable to move. Instead they were literally stuck up a tree, and there wasn't even time to take a breath before the next attack came.  
  
The earth churned, and another wave of mud rose up to break over them. Erza requipped to the white leotard of the Morning Star Armour and brought both swords slashing down. Green arcs of light cut through the wave, but as soon as the gaps were opened up more mud flowed in to fill them.  
  
"Freeze!" Gray shouted, one hand upraised. It didn't work. It wasn't true mud, just earth that flowed like a liquid. There was no extra water in it that he could use. The wave smashed into them and knocked them both out of the tree. Gray twisted in midair. "Ice-Make: Floor!" The three of them landed on a thick sheet of ice, rather than falling into the mire. The mud splashed down around them. Erza rolled to her feet, swords held at the ready. Gray hauled Natsu off the ice by the back of his jacket before his higher body temperature could begin to melt through it, and tossed him to Happy. Happy just managed to wrap his tail around Natsu’s middle before he could fall through the ice.  
  
"Who are you?" Erza shouted. "Show yourself, coward!"  
  
“You had poor luck, wandering into our territory.” A very tall man, with a polygonal face like Wally’s, emerged from the trees. He held a large book with a jewel symbol on the front.  
  
“You’re one of the Seis,” Erza said.  
  
“The Seis, yes,” he said. “My codename is Hoteye.” He made a two-fingered gesture at his eyes. “Of the Heavenly-”  
  
Erza cut him off. “Where have you taken Wendy?”  
  
“So you’re trying to retrieve the little girl? She promises to be very valuable, very valuable indeed.” Hoteye looked them over as if he was mentally totting up the price of their clothes - a great deal for Erza’s custom-made Heart Kreuz armour and much less for Gray’s, because Gray had learnt early on that money spent on clothes was money literally thrown away - and shook his head.  
  
“You think we’re weak? You couldn’t be more wrong,” Gray said.  
  
“Money makes a person stronger, yes? Let me tell you something. In this world, money is-”  
  
“This guy talks too much,” Gray said. “Erza, I’ll deal with this!” Happy wasn't any use carrying Natsu, he didn't know what use Carla was anyway, and Erza had more of a shot at getting Wendy out. The Seis definitely knew they were there now, so time was essential. “You three go on ahead!" Erza had reached the same conclusion. She nodded briskly and raced away across the ice floor, leaping nimbly from floe to floe. Gray dropped to one knee and pressed both hands against the ice as it rocked under him. The ice spread and solidified again, giving Erza a better footing. And if it blocked Hoteye from getting to the earth below - The ice shivered. Geysers of liquid earth burst through. Whatever. "Ice-Make: Lance!"  
  
* * *  
  
Erza had cleared the battleground and was racing through the forest, the two cats in the air close behind. Natsu swung from Happy's tail like a pendulum. The trees had thinned out. Erza's first thoughts were tactical; that meant less cover, so she was more likely to be seen, but in turn it would be easier to see an enemy approaching. It took her a moment to realise that they were tearing through the remains of the old capital city. Soil and trees had buried the ruins, but Erza had taken enough missions where she had needed to find things hidden underground that she could pick out the ridges in the ground that marked the foundations of small, round huts. At the centre of the ruins, two rivers met and poured into a great round pit.  
  
That had to be the city's centre. Around the far edges the forest came right up to the cliff. "Happy! Carla! Follow me!" Erza hastened around the edge of the sinkhole, wading through a river - they were both fast-flowing, but shallow - to where the vegetation made her less exposed. At the bottom of the pit, the two rivers fed a deep lake around a tiny island with a colony of ruined huts. Stepping stones led from the island to a cave in the cliff face. The entrance of the cave was reinforced and shuttered with bamboo. That looked like recent work. It was sheltered, solid and impossible to see except by circling around the pit; there couldn't be anywhere better to hide. Erza drew a machete and, holding it ready in her hand, scrambled down the cliff face. Loose stones skittered down after her like the trail of a comet. Carla fluttered down in perfect silence, and Happy followed. Erza crouched on a tiny outcrop at the foot of the cliff. Happy hovered over the water, Natsu’s toes brushing the lake surface.  
  
"Erza!" Happy said, in a stifled wail, "Natsu's all grey!"  
  
"Don't worry," Erza said, more to console Happy than out of genuine optimism. "It's not been that long since he was bitten, and dark mages generally prefer to inflict lingering deaths."  
  
Happy made a miserable noise.  
  
"You should have more self-control," Carla told him.  
  
Erza ignored the bickering cats and focused on the cave. Her magical senses told her that there was at least one powerful mage in there, and maybe more. It would be suicidal to charge straight in, especially when they had a hostage. What was the right thing to do?  
  
* * *  
  
"Ice-Make: Lance!"  
  
The frozen spears shot towards Hoteye. He gestured with two fingers, and a wave of liquified earth rose up in front of him. It swallowed up the lances and then kept coming. Gray swore, and flung up a hand. "Ice-Make: Wall!" The hasty barrier didn't hold. The wave broke through it, swept Gray up and spun him around and over and over. Gray tried to shout, and earth seeped into his mouth. "Augh! Ice-Make: Shell!" A thick cocoon of ice formed around him, just before the wave smashed him into a tree.  
  
The shell cracked into pieces, but the tree anchored him in place as the wave subsided. Fine. Long-range attacks weren't working. Gray drew in a deep breath, tried to get up, wavered and fell back against the trunk of the tree. Hoteye gestured. The earth rose up and closed over Gray's head. Hoteye was trying to drown him.  
  
He definitely preferred to fight from a distance, then. Gray could use that, if he could get close enough to throw a punch. Gray scrambled up, shaking earth from his hair like a dog, grabbed a branch and hauled himself out of the mud. Ice spread instantly under his boots. He threw himself forward, more ice rippling out into a solid path under him as he ran. He needed something to conceal his movements -  
  
Hoteye tried to smash him with another giant wave. That would do. "Ice-Make: Wall!" The ice wall cracked as the wave hit, but it held on for long enough for Gray to thump his fist into the palm of his other hand. "Ice-Make: Dummy!" The levee broke. Gray dived behind a tree and hung on. The ice replica of Gray was swamped, bowled over and over and came to a stop drifting face-down in the liquid earth. To Gray's relief, it didn't break, but sank slowly. That should make Hoteye let his guard down.  
  
"Very clever," Hoteye said, and a surge of liquid earth slammed Gray into the trunk. He was dragged back to the ground as the wave subsided. "But my Heavenly Eye can see through such tricks!"  
  
X-ray vision, Gray realised, spitting out mud. Great.  
  
Like hell he was giving up there, though. Everything had limits. What were that guy's limits?  
  
Gray jumped up again and ran, leaping nimbly from pillar to pillar of ice over the liquified ground until he reached the place where the forest was thicker. Hoteye's vision magic could work through one tree. Could it work through several?  
  
Gray saw the shadows move on the ground ahead of him and threw himself aside. A falling tree smashed into the ground right where he had been. The earth had liquified and risen up under its roots to hurl it at him.  
  
Apparently, yes.  
  
He kept running, deeper into the forest, trying to stay ahead until he could figure out a better plan. Could he escape and then attack from a far enough range that Hoteye wouldn't see it coming? Set up another diversion? He heard a drawn-out creak and darted back, but as another tree toppled down in front of him he was caught in its thin, brittle branches. Gray cursed, fought his way free and took off running again. The earth surged under his feet, and every few seconds another tree came crashing down, forcing him to keep zig-zagging away from them. His breath scraped in his throat. When he threw a look back over his shoulder, he couldn't even see Hoteye.  
  
This had been a bad plan, Gray decided, but it was only when he ploughed through a thicket of dry, dense undergrowth into empty air that he realised he'd let himself be herded.  
  
“Miss Scarlet!” Carla gasped, and pointed. “Look out!”  
  
Erza looked around just in time to see the splash as Gray hit the water. Her eyes widened. Gray broke the surface, spitting out lakewater. The water around him froze. He hauled himself out onto the ice floe.  
  
“Requip: Sea Empress Armour!”  
  
Erza ran across the surface of the lake to the island, kicking up plumes of spray with every stride. Gray waded onto the shore and shook his head, flinging water droplets everywhere. Carla, fluttering behind them, dodged away quickly. Erza didn’t bother.  
  
"Gray! What happened?"  
  
Gray looked around at the steep walls of the pit and cursed. "We're trapped here!"  
  
"He followed you?"  
  
"We have to get out of here, before-"  
  
The lake surface rippled and bulged upwards as the earth below rose up. Hoteye was standing over them, at the edge of the cliff. Gray spun and fired off a burst of Ice Lances that fell just short. The cats shot higher into the sky.  
  
Erza requipped into the Morning Star Armour again and clapped the swords together. "Photon Slicer!" A beam of bright green energy tore through the onrushing wave. Erza and Gray had already been charging forward before it hit. They burst through the gap, mud showering down on their heads.  
  
“Ice-Make: Floor!” The lake froze solid. Erza and Gray tore out onto the ice.  
  
"Requip: Black Wing Armour!" Erza gasped, but as the dark lacquered plates formed around her, she skidded to a stop.  
  
They were standing almost exactly in front of the cave, and there was another of the Oracion Seis standing in the entrance. He raised his staff. Coiling tendrils of energy wrapped around Erza and Gray, and reached into the air for Happy and Carla. A whip locked around Natsu’s leg, and when Carla tried to tear it off, another wound around her waist. Erza snarled and hacked at the tendrils, but more and more knotted around her until she was dragged to the ground. "Augh!"  
  
"I assume that you've come to rescue the sky sorceress," Brain said, and smiled. "This place is the grave of the Nirvit people. Now it will be your grave as well."  
  
He walked past them out onto Gray’s ice, and snapped his fingers to bring Midnight's carpet floating behind him. The tendrils hurled Carla and the Fairy Tail mages into the depths of the cave, and the coffin came crashing down on them. Anybody still in the cave that Brain might want to retrieve was safely locked inside said coffin, and it was designed to protect the occupant against anything. "Hoteye?" He gestured back at the cave with his staff. Hoteye liquidised the earth above the cave, and brought the whole cliff crashing down on the Fairies.  
  
* * *  
  
The snake guy was leaning against a tree, arms folded, snake draped across his shoulders. He kept staring at Jellal as if he was trying to read his mind. It was getting annoying.  
  
Jellal hadn't asked who he was, because he was fairly sure that he should already know.  
  
He seemed friendly, at least. There was a faint nagging sense of unease, something Jellal knew he ought to remember – but then, he could be wrong. If that girl with the red hair was Erza – just the memory of the name brought with it a sense of light and warmth, like holding a lamp in the palm of his hand – and she'd tried to kill him... The gash on his arm stung. The man with the snake had helped him escape from the three mages who'd attacked him, so he should be trustworthy. Shouldn't he?  
  
The man with the snake looked around, and then said, “These are some really impressive trees you found here, Fernandes.”  
  
Jellal gestured for him to be quiet. Fernandes. Was that him, too?  
  
There was magic here. He recognised it, had recognised it from a mile away, but he didn't know why. Dozens of enchantments covering almost a square mile, layered on top of one another and interweaved into one extremely complicated concealment spell. Not an illusion, something more subtle. There were definitely a few suggestion spells in there, working on the deepest subconscious levels, designed to make the gaze slide away, deflect all attention – nothing interesting here, move it along. That magic you're sensing? No, you aren't – and spells made to cut out a hole in the perception and let the victim's mind fill in the blind spot with more black twisted trees. Or an endless empty sea. He thought he'd used spells like this himself, but he didn't remember why.  
  
He shut his eyes, drew in a deep breath and opened his eyes again. Now, he was looking at a dizzying black void.  
  
Jellal had to take a moment to admire the artistry of it. It looked as if the original enchanter had fuelled the spell by solar energy, using the trees all around as a collection system. Usually with something as unpredictable as solar energy, a trick like that wouldn't last more than a few months before either cloudy weather brought it all down for lack of power, or a streak of sunny days overloaded the system and everything went spectacularly, explosively wrong. In this case, though, it had what looked like a very early model of – of – ugh, he knew it was a type of thaumic diffuser but he couldn't remember the name. Still, that spread the excess through the forest, raising the ambient magical levels and concealing the spell itself, and another device drew the energy back in when it was needed. Delicate, unobtrusive threads channeled magical energy around the system, wherever it was needed. It could have been ticking along quietly for years. How ingenious!  
  
But still, delicate. Any system that complicated would be vulnerable to being hit in the right place. Jellal broke the threads. The power supply cut out. The suggestion spells wavered, and broke apart. The perception spells collapsed, and the void seemed to crack into pieces, revealing a landscape of rock and more blackened trees behind it.  
  
“We're not in that much of a rush, or anything, but I don't think there's time for you to admire every tree in the forest,” the snake guy said. Jellal ignored him and walked forward, into the hidden area. The rock around was smooth and shiny, as if it had been melted, and veined with phosphorescent stone. Against that, the trees seemed even darker and more stunted.  
  
“Cubellios, do you remember this place?” the snake-guy asked his snake quietly.  
  
At the centre of the hidden area, a massive tree loomed over the forest around. It should have been visible for miles. The trunk glowed from within, and it was ringed by more gently glowing rocks like a protective wall. Heavy chains ran from the rocks into the heart of the tree, plunging through the bark into the heartwood.  
  
Now the guy with the snake was surprised. He swore faintly. “There was something like this hidden here?”  
  
* * *  
  
Gray woke up to someone hitting him in the side. “Mr Fullbuster! Wake up!” Gray cracked an eye open, blinked, and rubbed his eyes. There was no light, and his mouth was gritty with dirt. Something was pressing into his shoulder, and when he tried to move and heard an indignant miaow, he realised it was one of the cats.  
  
“Erza?”  
  
“Here,” Erza said. It sounded like she was kneeling over him. Gray groped around in the darkness, and his hand found the side of a metal box. Everything came flooding back.  
  
Gray banged his fist on the side of the coffin. “Hey, Wendy! Is that you in there?”  
  
The coffin shuddered violently as someone kicked at the wall from the inside. More dust showered down. Gray twisted, shoved an arm and a cat out of the way, and pressed his hands together. "Ice-Make: Tree!"  
  
Threads of ice burrowed into the earth like roots and expanded. The ice statue grew upwards, towards the sunlight. Branches sprouted with tiny crystalline leaves. Earth cascaded from the statue's sides as it grew outwards, pushing more and more soil away until the Fairies and Carla were all crouching under the roots of a great ice tree.  
  
Erza had been covering them with the shield of her Adamantine Armour, its upper edge braced against the coffin. She lowered her arms and rubbed her shoulders. “Good job, Gray.”  
  
Gray answered that by sitting down hard on the floor.  
  
The metal coffin was half-encased in ice. Erza switched to the Black Wing Armour and hacked the ice away, then the chains holding the box shut, and then requipped a crowbar to force the lid open.  
  
"Wendy?" Carla said. "Wendy!" She threw herself at the little girl and clutched her tightly. “Are you all right? Get out of there! It's probably filthy!” She hauled Wendy out of the box.  
  
Erza, however, was staring at the girl climbing out of the coffin after Wendy. "Lucy! What are you doing here?”  
  
“What happened to the cliff?” Lucy said, and then recognised the Fairy Tail mages, which answered her question, really. "Oh my God! I'm so glad to see you guys!" They weren't her own team, but Erza and Gray were a very close second choice. Her smile faded. "I've got, um, some bad news."  
  
"It's my fault!" Wendy said, and covered her head with her hands. “I'm so sorry! I-”  
  
“No, hey, stop that,” Lucy said, trying to pull Wendy's hands away.  
  
“You resurrected Jellal,” Erza said.  
  
“Uh,” said Lucy. “Yes. Good guess. How’d you oh crap. You ran into him already?”  
  
Erza nodded.  
  
“That's not important right now!” Gray said, loudly enough to cut through Wendy's panic. “Lucy, you can explain in a minute. Wendy, this idiot got himself poisoned.” Gray pointed. Fairy Tail's pink-haired Dragon Slayer was lying on the ground, with his little blue cat anxiously hovering over him. Literally, hovering over him.  
  
“Natsu Dragneel!” Wendy gasped, both hands flying to her mouth.  
  
Lucy responded similarly. “They let that guy out of prison already?” Then she remembered that Erza and Gray probably liked him, added “Good. That's a good thing. I'm very pleased.” She changed the subject. “Did a snake bite him?”  
  
“More like he threw himself into its mouth,” said Gray. “He can't help us fight the Oracion Seis like that. We need him healed. Can you do it?”  
  
Wendy scrubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Of... of course! Right! I'll do my best!” She knelt by Natsu's side, and a pale blue glow kindled around both her hands. When she laid her hands on Natsu's chest, the glow spread to cover his face and limbs. In the pale light, he looked as white as if he'd already died.  
  
By now, though, Lucy was pretty confident that Wendy could fix anything.  
  
“Lucy, how did you get here?” Gray said. “Is your team around?”  
  
Lucy rattled off the quickest possible version of how she'd got there, and moved on. “So when I woke up Wendy was there, too, and they were bringing in that box-” She gestured to it. “-and their leader – the tattooed guy, Brain – told Wendy she had to heal the guy inside it, and of course Wendy said she wouldn't, but when he opened the coffin and it was Jellal-” She broke off. “I think it's definitely the real Jellal. They said, since he snuck onto the Council, he would know how to find some sort of ancient weapon they want to unseal. It's called Nirvana.”  
  
“What does it do?” Gray said. “Nirvana… I’ve never heard of it before.”  
  
“It’s a magic that makes light and darkness switch places,” Lucy said. “Don’t ask me what that means. But I’m guessing it’d be really bad if they got it.”  
  
Gray tried to figure that out for a moment, then shook his head. “So she healed Jellal?”  
  
Lucy pulled a face. “That was my fault, really.”  
  
“What? Why?”  
  
“Wendy thought that she knew Jellal from years ago, and he was nice to her once, so she wanted to heal him anyway. She might have decided to do it by herself, but I told her she ought to.” Gray didn't say anything. Lucy hurried on. “I figured if she didn't, they'd just kill her, and that when Jellal recovered he would just blow everything up and walk out – which he did! - and that would be our best shot at escaping, too. But it went wrong and we ended up in the coffin instead.”  
  
“Jellal walked out?” Gray said. “He's working with them now. He was with Cobra when we ran into him, and they ran off together.”  
  
“Crap!” Lucy said. “So they could already be heading to the-”  
  
She was cut off when Erza stirred and spoke quietly. “Wendy knew Jellal?”  
  
“She said she did. But I was talking to her while we were stuck in the box, so she wouldn't freak out,” Lucy said, “and I don't think her story holds up. A), she said she met Jellal seven years ago, and by then he was already trying to bring Zeref back, so why would he go wandering around for a month with a little girl instead? And second, the guy she described knowing didn't sound much like him.” Not a total sociopath, for one thing. “Quiet, kind of shy, carried a staff, good at sleep magic?”  
  
“Uh...huh,” Gray said, and looked at Erza.  
  
“She said one time he magically knocked out a whole village so they could get groceries without anyone seeing them.”  
  
“Hmmm,” Erza said.  
  
“Really, the only thing they had in common was the name and the face,” Lucy said.  
  
Gray and Erza both looked totally blank. So blank Lucy almost had to think it was deliberate.  
  
“Soooo... I think they've got someone who can mess with people's heads, and they've made her think she knew Jellal so that she would heal him for them?”  
  
“...yes! That sounds plausible!” Erza said.  
  
“That makes sense,” Gray agreed.  
  
Wow. It took them a long time to catch on there.  
  
Erza let out a slow breath. Lucy felt sorry for her, having to deal with Jellal again. How had he even survived getting run through twice?  
  
Maybe the universe just had it out for Erza.  
  
It was several minutes before Wendy sat back, wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled. “I think I'm all done!” she said. “I neutralised all the poison in Natsu's body!” Erza, Gray and Happy clustered instantly around Natsu's head, staring down at him.  
  
He didn't open his eyes, or even move.  
  
“He still might not wake up for a little while,” Wendy said. “But he'll be okay now!” She smiled.  
  
Happy smiled too. “Thank goodness... you're amazing, Wendy!”  
  
“We need him awake before we can start a counter-offensive,” Gray said.  
  
Erza considered that, and then shouted “Natsu!” She kicked him in the side. “Wake up, now!”  
  
Natsu jolted awake with a yell of fear. “Erza! Oh crap!” He tried to leap to his feet, made it two steps and crashed down on his face.  
  
“Uh,” Gray said.  
  
“...I said he might not wake up for a little while,” Wendy said reproachfully.  
  
“Natsu, we're going to begin fighting back against the Seis,” Erza said. Natsu rolled over. Happy flopped onto his chest, and Natsu raised a hand to rub his ears.  
  
“Did a cliff fall on us?”  
  
“Yes. Wendy cured you,” Erza said, and pointed.  
  
Natsu looked. “Hey! You're okay!” He grinned. “Cool. Thanks, Wendy!” He held up a hand, palm towards her. Wendy looked at it in confusion for a moment, and then timidly smacked his palm.  
  
“May I say something?” Carla tucked her hands into her shawl. “I would request that you not force Wendy to use her sky magic any more. As you can see, it takes up a great deal of her strength.”  
  
Wendy went pink and flapped her hands. “No! I'm fine, really! Please don't worry about me!”  
  
“Sky magic? I thought it was healing magic,” Lucy said.  
  
“Wendy is the Dragon Slayer of the Sky,” Carla explained. “That includes mastery of the healing arts.”  
  
Wendy mumbled something about not really being a master.  
  
“...oh. Right. Okay,” Lucy said. Was everyone a Dragon Slayer now? Weren't they supposed to be rare?  
  
Oooh, she should definitely try to set Wendy and Ryos up together. That would be so cute!  
  
“We'll do our best to avoid further injury. At the moment, though, we need to plan our counterattack on the Oracion Seis,” Erza said, as if she couldn't see how those two sentences contradicted each other. “Our master had decided that we would form part of a joint mission to defeat the Seis, with Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Cait Shelter-” She inclined her head to Wendy and Carla. “But if the Seis are acting now, we don't have time to wait. We'll have to stop them ourselves.”  
  
“Uh,” Lucy said.  
  
“If we can't defeat them, we'll delay them until the delegations from the other guilds arrive. But we can't allow them to get their hands on Nirvana!”  
  
* * *  
  
How was it meant to be unsealed?  
  
The man with the snake said something. Jellal gestured sharply for him not to be so distracting, and approached the tree. Trying to break a seal with brute force usually just triggered a spell to destroy whatever you were trying to get at.  
  
He laid a hand on the trunk of the tree. For a moment his hand stood out starkly against the glow. Then, there was a flash of blinding light, a deafening boom and a blast of wind that whipped his borrowed coat around him. The blast ripped the tree into a whirlwind of dust and flying fragments. The earth shook as a stone tower forced itself out of the ground.  
  
Jellal tried to look like he'd expected that.  
  
A hundred feet up, the stone tower ended in a flourish of crenellations, but it still projected a pillar of energy upwards into the sky. The pillar was as black as obsidian, but limned with such brilliant light it was hard to look at. The glow bleached the colour from the snake-man's face, and he had to squint as he looked up. He laughed.  
  
“Nirvana's ours! It's finally ours!”  
  
That was quite a maniacal laugh. Jellal glanced back at him. The man was only staring up at the pillar of Nirvana.  
  
Suddenly, Jellal had a sneaking suspicion that this hadn't been a good idea.  
  
* * *  
  
“Oh, _crap_ ,” said Lucy.  
  
* * *  
  
Juvia banged Reticulum's key against a treetrunk. “Gate of the Reticule, open!” Nothing happened. “The spirit is refusing to answer summons,” Juvia said.  
  
Ryos murmured something about how that wasn't really a surprise. Juvia and Gajeel looked at the forest.  
  
“We'll sniff around for her,” Gajeel said. “With all the crap she puts on her hair, she'll be easy to find.”  
  
Juvia looked at him, then looked again at the hundred square miles of the Worth Woodsea.  
  
“What?” Gajeel said.  
  
There was a flash of light. A distant boom shook the treetops like a high wind.  
  
“What the hell was that?” Gajeel said. He and Ryos both looked around. A dark column speared out of the forest into the clouds, drawing tendrils of energy towards it out of the trees below.  
  
“Problem solved,” Gajeel said. “Looks like trouble. Ashley's bound to be there.”  
  
* * *

The guy with the snake was grinning so widely it threatened to pop off the top of his head. “It's ours! We finally got it, Cubellios!” He looked up at the tower of darkness. “How are you going to wake up the rest of it?”  
  
There was a rest of it?  
  
“I'm not,” Jellal said, just to see how he would react.  
  
Snake Guy started and looked around, scowling. “What?”  
  
“You wanted me to find it and unseal it. I found it and unsealed it. Anything else is your responsibility.”  
  
Snake Guy's scowl darkened. His eyebrows drew together and his lips skinned back over his teeth. “Do I look like a theoretician to you?”  
  
“I'm surprised that you know how to pronounce it,” Jellal said, “so... no.”  
  
Snake Guy gestured, and his snake slithered back to him. Jellal tensed, but kept his hands in his pockets and his face impassive. “You shouldn't be trying to unseal Nirvana, if you don't know how to use it.”  
  
“Wow. You really are a smug asshole,” Snake Guy said.  
  
No. Snake Guy was definitely not his friend. The back of his neck prickled. This had been a very bad idea.  
  
“Correct,” Jellal agreed lightly, and drew both hands out of his pockets so he'd be ready to fire off a blast of energy. Fight, or run?  
  
“What's happening here, Cobra?”  
  
They both looked around sharply. That tall man with the tattooed face stood at the edge of the clearing. Jellal went still.  
  
“Brain! That was quick,” Cobra said, startled, and a boy with black-and-white hair who was wearing his own weight again in eyeliner stepped out from behind Brain. “Oh, you woke Midnight-” He broke off, scowled again and pointed at Jellal. “He's refusing to awaken Nirvana!”  
  
“That's unlike you, Jellal,” Brain said. “I don't believe you ever turned down an opportunity to meddle before.” Jellal didn't say anything. Brain's stare hardened. “Why did you attack me back at the cave?”  
  
Because he'd woken up not knowing where or who he was and Brain had grabbed him unexpectedly. “I wasn't feeling chatty.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cobra tap a finger against his head and mouth 'crazy!' at Brain.  
  
“You should make him suffer for that, Father,” Midnight said. Jellal decided he didn't like Midnight. Three opponents. Probably too many to fight. Maybe too many to run from.   
  
Brain ignored Midnight, though. “Hm. I forgot how tiresome you can be.” He walked past Jellal, his staff thudding on the ground, and stopped in front of the tower. “But you, Cobra, seem to have forgotten why my codename is Brain.”  
  
Midnight smiled. Brain stretched out his hands. “Nirvana! Awaken!” The earth broke open. Earth and chunks of shattered bedrock were hurled into the air. Jellal staggered, lurched against a pillar and clutched on to it. Jellal caught a glimpse of the stone tower unfolding like flower petals before a white light speared through the cracks in the earth, blindingly bright; he could barely make out the rocks falling down around them in slow motion. Cobra's exultant laugh rang out and Jellal thought he shouted something, but he couldn't make it out over the roar of falling rocks. _The tower's collapsing_ , he thought, with a surge of panic. The ground heaved and trembled beneath him.  
  
The brilliant light faded. Jellal blinked, and for a moment he thought he was looking down at a restless sea before the forest swam into focus far below him. On the other side of the pillar he was leaning against lay a dizzying drop. They were at the top of a tower now, looking out over a ruined stone city, and the city hung high over the treetops, supported by eight stone spiderlegs still trailing soil and scrubby vegetation.  
  
Brain laughed, and slammed the butt of his staff into the floor. Complex magical circles opened up around him. A control system? “Finally, it's mine!” he shouted. “The greatest weapon against the light! Those regular guilds' strongest weapons, trust and unity, will be useless from now on... from this moment onwards!”  
  
Helping Cobra had been a _really_ bad idea.


	29. Natsu Plays The Floor Is Lava

Nirvana loomed above the treetops, swaying slightly on its eight stone legs, huge enough to block out the sun. The seven of them stared upwards in stunned horror.

Well, not quite. Six of them stared upwards in stunned horror.

“What's she doing here?” Natsu asked, looking at Lucy. Erza gave him a short explanation, which Lucy mostly ignored, except for the part where Erza seemed to think that Lucy was her team's _leader_.

“Um... leader? I'm not their leader. Where'd you get the idea that I was their leader?” Lucy said. It was hard enough getting Gajeel to do what she wanted without trying to be _leader_ as well.

“Hey! She got to join in with the fighting festival too?” Natsu blew a little puff of smoke out of his nose. “That's not fair! Everyone else got to compete and I missed it!”

“'Compete'?” Lucy repeated, in blank disbelief. “Laxus was threatening to kill everyone in Magnolia. It wasn't a game...”

“Eh? You guys took that too seriously,” Natsu said. “He was only ever bluffing.”

“That's right! Everything worked out okay in the end,” Happy said.

Gray rolled his eyes so hard it should have made him dizzy. Well, it was easy for Natsu to say that now they knew Laxus hadn't been planning to go through with it. Lucy bet he'd have been saying something else if he'd actually been there, though.

“This isn't important,” Erza cut in. “We need to stop the Seis before they can use Nirvana. Come on! If we can't reach it before it starts moving, it'll be harder to catch up!” Without giving anyone an opportunity to argue, or even reply, she shot off straight for the closest leg of Nirvana. Gray and Natsu charged after her, Happy fluttering behind Natsu. For lack of any better ideas, Lucy followed them.

“This is dangerous,” Carla said.

“We have to help!” Wendy said. “Please, Carla, it's all my fault that the Seis got Nirvana! If I'd been braver- We have to help!”

Carla looked at the tears welling up in Wendy's eyes, and relented. “You shouldn't cry so easily, Wendy... but we must be careful! These are dangerous enemies!” She scooped Wendy up and flew after the others.

“There's five of the Seis left,” Lucy gasped. “You already ran into Cobra-”

“And Hoteye,” Gray said. He barely sounded out of breath at all, the jerk. “Big guy with orange hair. Earth magic and some sort of enhanced vision.”

“And the man with the tattoos,” Wendy offered. Carla was flying low to avoid the trees, so Wendy had to pull her knees up to keep her toes from skimming the ground. “He's their leader.”

“His codename's Brain,” Lucy wheezed. “I don't know what he does.” Wendy shook her head, too. “The other two are Racer-” She had to slow down to get a coherent sentence out. “-really pointy nose, and he uses superspeed magic – and Midnight. I don't know what Midnight does. He was asleep the whole time. But... Brain was happy enough to talk to Jellal with just Midnight for backup, so either Brain's stupid or Midnight's really strong.”

“That's good to know. Thank you,” Erza said.

Lucy blew out a frustrated breath. “Don't thank me. I can't help you guys out much. Cobra's probably got my keys, and I can't do anything without them.”

“We'll get your keys back,” Natsu said.

Lucy looked around. “What?”

“Me and Happy'll get your keys back! That'll pay you back for when we tried to kidnap you before, right?” Natsu made a fist, and fire blazed up around it. “And it'll pay him back for pulling that cheap trick on us!”

“Does it count as repayment if you were planning to do it anyway?” Lucy said. “But... deal.” She couldn't do anything unless she got her keys back, and if everything went wrong then at least Natsu's dramatics would provide a distraction.

“Great!” Natsu pointed. “Happy! Grab her!” Happy leapt up and latched onto the back of Lucy's top.

“Wha-?” Lucy looked back over her shoulder and saw white feathered wings unfolding, and then the ground fell away. “Agh!” She flailed.

“Hey, don't hit Happy!” Natsu yelled. “Happy, take her up to the city, and then come back and get me, right?”

“Aye!” Happy shot into the sky, dragging Lucy behind him. Lucy's voice faded into the distance.

“This isn't a good ideaaaaa!”

Natsu grinned broadly.

* * *

“At last!” Cobra shouted. “We did it! It's finally ours!” He leant against a pillar and looked out. “Isn't it fantastic, Cubellios?” Cubellios wrapped around his forearm, and Cobra scooped her up and draped her across his shoulders.

Jellal wasn't saying anything.

“Look down there!” Cobra said, and pointed to the wreckage where the city's legs had torn free of the ground. “It looks like Etherion hit it! Cool, huh?” Then he started and glanced over. “Oops. That probably brings up bad memories for you, huh?”

“Not at all,” Jellal said.

Brain stepped up to the edge of the tower, Midnight trailing behind him, and looked down. “Midnight. Look at how vast the world is.”

Midnight spared a glance for the weird, melted-looking buildings of the city, and the forest beyond it, dyed red by the sunset as if it was already burning, but not more than a glance. He was only watching Brain. “It's very impressive, Father.”

It was a very long way down. Jellal took a step back, turned and headed for the stairs down the outside of the tower.

Brain turned his head slightly. “Where are you going, Jellal?”

“I'm going to explore the city,” Jellal said.

Brain considered it, and then said “Fine. You may go where you like.”

Irritation flickered across Jellal's face at the implication that he needed Brain's permission to go anywhere, but he didn't say anything. He descended the steps and disappeared from view.

Brain spread out his arms as if he meant to grasp hold of the whole world. “I am the king of Nirvana. This city shall move where I will it!”

“Wait, we're going somewhere?” Cobra said.

“No, Cobra,” Midnight said, with a slow blink of his heavy-lidded eyes. “We're going to sit here, and be kings of this forest.” Cobra flipped him off where Brain couldn't see.

“Hmmm,” Brain said. He lingered over the choice. “It would have been delicious, to make Cait Shelter the first target of their own resurrected weapon.”

“We kicked their asses already,” Cobra said.

“They were pathetic. Mere weak relics,” said Midnight. “It would have been a disappointment. We should attack the strongest target possible to inaugurate your rule.”

Brain smiled widely. “Then we will set a course directly for the capital city. The old kings of this nation will perish, to make way for the new... as, of course, will anyone else that we encounter along the way. Which guilds are based near Crocus?”

“Who cares?” Cobra said, and laughed.

Twenty feet below the top, a ring of archways opened out onto the piers that linked the tower to its buttresses. Below that, there was nothing but empty space and the rocky ground three hundred feet below. Jellal stepped off the edge of the pier and dropped like a stone. There was a jolt like his heart slamming into the back of his chest, and the wind tore at his hair and Cobra's coat, stinging tears to his eyes and blurring the ground shooting up towards him. A hundred feet up, he threw out both hands and a dozen huge magical circles blossomed between him and the ground. Every circle he fell through drained off more of his momentum. Jellal landed on his feet, slipped on the uneven ground, and sat down hard.

Almost perfect. He'd done that before, and often. Not that he could guess when. It wasn't a priority to find out, either. He took a few steps away, turned, and blasted out half of the tower's ground floor.

Tons of stone and plaster disintegrated instantly into a cloud of dust. The tower creaked, and listed to the side, and began to fall. Jellal got out of there in a hurry.

Far above, Cobra yelled and grabbed at Cubellios as the ground dropped away. Her wings snapped open. Cobra swung in midair, legs kicking. “Cubellios!” She wrapped a coil around him. He pulled himself up and balanced on her back, between her wings. Below them, the tower crashed into the city. The crash shook Nirvana from top to bottom. The wreckage was swamped in a billowing cloud of dust.

“Shit,” Cobra said. “Cubellios, down!” He couldn't see through the swirling dust, and he had to cover his nose and mouth with his sleeve to keep from choking on it. “Cubellios, let me off and get higher up!” He leapt down and immediately staggered as rock shifted under his feet. He could hear Midnight's thoughts, a panicked whirl of father my father where, so at least that jerk was okay.

“Midnight!” Cobra yelled, and stumbled in his direction. “Hey!” The cloud cleared abruptly as he came into Midnight's range, and the other Seis mage loomed out of the haze. He didn't look injured, though his kohl-lined eyes were wide with shock. With his space distortion magic, he probably hadn't fallen more than ten feet, and despite the dust, he was surrounded by a halo of clean air. “Where's Brain?”

“I don't _knoooooow_ ,” Midnight said, in his snottiest voice.

“Fine. Okay. Shut up and let me listen... Beth, seriously, shut up.”

That broke Midnight out of it. His eyes narrowed. “Don't call me that.”

Cobra ignored him and listened for a heartbeat. He pointed. “Over there.”

Midnight turned his head, and the cloud rolled away. Brain was hauling himself to his feet, leaning on his staff. Midnight hurried over to him and reached out. “Father, are you-”

Brain shook him off impatiently. Midnight recoiled.

“I think Jellal blew up the tower,” Cobra said. “What's that guy playing at? He's got to be crazy!”

“The city is still moving towards the coordinates requested,” Brain said. “It will still obey my commands. This is not a problem. This is _not_ -” He broke off, closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Midnight. Cobra. Find Jellal. Kill him. Painfully.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cobra said, and Midnight smiled.

* * *

“Three,” Juvia said. “Two. One!”

A blast of high-pressure water catapulted Gajeel into the sky. As he fell, he twisted and drove two iron bars through one of Nirvana's legs, pinning it to the ground. Stone cracked apart. The city lurched. Gajeel landed on top of the leg and yelled “Move your asses!” Juvia and Ryos scrambled up next to him just as the leg began to move again, sliding itself off the two iron bars with an awful shriek of metal on stone.

“Wait up!” someone yelled. Ice spiralled around the two iron bars, holding the leg down. Erza Scarlet, wearing her Black Wing armour, dropped out of the sky next to them, along with a small girl and a cat. The leg tore itself free with a shuddering crack that made them have to lurch to keep their balance. “Ice-Make: Stairs!” As the leg rose again, sweeping past him, Gray raced up his ice stairs and hurled himself at it. Erza grabbed his arm and hauled him aboard.

“Oh. You guys again?” Gray said.

“Good evening,” Juvia said, bemused.

“What the hell are you lot doing here?” Gajeel said, while Juvia politely introduced herself and her teammates to Wendy and Carla.

“We were asked to come and fight the Seis and we agreed.” The leg was broad but sloping, so they all had to move upwards in single file. Erza leapt from stone to stone, wings extended for balance. “Are you here to look for Lucy?”

“Yeah,” Gajeel said. He turned, transforming his arm into an iron bar, and slammed it into the rock in front of Wendy and Ryos. “Hurry up!” Wendy grasped Gajeel's arm and used it to pull herself up. Ryos took it as a warning, and climbed faster.

The bar had gone through Juvia's midsection on the way. She slid off it with a squelch. “What does Erza know about Lucy?”

Erza smiled. “She's all right. We rescued her at the same time that we rescued Wendy.”

Juvia clapped her hands and beamed. “That's wonderful! Juvia is so glad!... where is she now?”

“She and Natsu went to fight Cobra and retrieve her keys.”

Juvia paused mid-clap.

“The Salamander? He couldn't fight a punching bag,” Gajeel said.

“There's also another complication,” Erza said, and hesitated.

“Jellal Fernandes isn't dead and he's working with the Seis now,” Gray said.

Juvia's smile melted away like snow in a furnace. “What?” She clutched at her hair. “This is awful! Lucy could be in terrible danger!”

“I'm going to kill it,” Erza said. “Properly, this time. There's no reason for you to be alarmed.”

Juvia continued to be alarmed.

“I'm not concerned for either of them,” Erza said, “and if you don't trust my judgement, then at least trust Lucy's.”

Juvia took several deep breaths. “Yes. Lucy is very good at not dying. Juvia must have faith that Lucy will – what is the Seis's plan?”

Erza explained everything they knew, which didn't take very long. Juvia and Gajeel both nodded.

“Making light and dark swap places?” Ryos said. He looked up at the night sky as if the sun might suddenly come up.

“We should stop the Nirvana device,” Juvia said. “It is most likely moving towards a target. If we can prevent it from arriving, that allows us to regroup and possibly wait for your reinforcements.”

“How exactly were you planning to stop it?” Gray said.

Juvia looked down at her feet for a moment, at the fissures that opened and closed between the stones as Nirvana moved, and said “If Gray will help Juvia, she believes that they can break its legs.”

“They aren't going to miss that,” Gray said. “...Sure. We'll bring this thing down, and whichever of the Seis show up-” He thumped his fist against his palm. “-we'll take them out.”

“Gajeel,” Erza said, “you and I should continue up to the city.” She pointed ahead. Right at the point where the leg met the main body of the machine, there was a square of deeper darkness. “I think that's a way up. You should try to eliminate as many of the Oracion Seis as possible. For my part, I'll destroy _him_.” There wasn't any need to clarify who she meant.

Gajeel bared all his teeth in a grin. “I'm not taking orders from you, Scarlet, but... hah. That's what I was planning to do, anyway.”

“Good.”

Gajeel jerked his head at Ryos and Wendy. “Those two should sit it out. What is this, a Cub Scouts meeting?”

“Wendy doesn't have much offensive capability,” Erza admitted. “But her healing magic could prove vital... Wendy, it would be best if you stayed away from the battle. If you, Carla, and Ryos work together, you'll be able to keep yourselves out of danger.”

“Yeah,” Gajeel agreed. “And keep yourselves out of our way, too.”

“Okay,” Wendy said, in a small voice.

“Okay,” Ryos said, through gritted teeth.

“That's really for the best, Wendy,” Carla said. “And speak up.”

They climbed in silence for a moment.

“Are Erza and Gajeel sure of what they want to do, then?” Juvia asked. “It's only that Juvia thinks her plan to disable the Nirvana will work best from the ground.”

“...oh yeah,” Gray said, and stopped. “Ice-Make: Slide!” Something that looked a little like a slide but mostly like a corkscrew grew out of the ground far below. Gray leapt onto it and slid down still on his feet, arms out for balance. Juvia stepped after him, slipped, landed on her butt and vanished down the corkscrew with a startled “Kya!”

The others reached the entrance to the city and stepped onto ground that didn't buck and sway underneath them. A narrow staircase led upwards, illuminated by a faintly-glowing lacrima fixed to the wall.

“Be careful,” Erza told Wendy, Ryos and Carla. She drew her sword and headed up the stairs.

Gajeel jabbed a finger into Ryos's chest. “You'd better not get yourself killed,” he said, and followed Erza.

* * *

Happy dropped Lucy off in one of Nirvana's streets and flew away, waving. “Stay there, Lucy! I'll get Natsu!”

This left Lucy standing all alone, totally unarmed, in the middle of a strange city full of lethal dark mages. For a few long moments, she looked around at the strange half-melted stone buildings, the empty yawning windows. Then she hid. Loose earth and stones skittered under her boots as she dived into one of the houses.

Ugh, those two! She crept upstairs and peeked out of the windows. She couldn't see anyone. The tower in the middle of the city had collapsed, and whatever was left was blotted out by a swirling cloud of dust. Lucy thought about how fragile this ancient city sitting a million feet in the air might be, and shivered. Why did it have to be Natsu? She'd definitely got the Fairy most likely to collapse the ground out from under her feet. If it was up to her, she'd have picked Gray in a second, even if he was a total exhibitionist.

There was a thud on the roof. Was that Natsu and Happy? She called out. “Natsu?” There was no reply. Lucy took a few steps closer to one of the windows. “Natsu?”

Cobra swung in through the window. “'Fraid not!”

Lucy yelped and backed away, fast. Where was the snake? Where was Natsu?

She had to stall.

“What do you want?”

Cobra stuck his hands in his pockets. “Good question. I'm meant to be going after Jellal Fernandes, but when I heard you scampering around... Good job getting out of the coffin, by the way.”

“Wasn't he helping you turn the Nirvana back on?” Lucy said. “Aw. Did that not work out?”

“You saw what he did to the control tower, right?” Cobra said. “We don't know what he's planning. The guy's insane.”

“Did you seriously only just realise that?” Lucy said. “What was the first clue? I mean, if it wasn't the part where he tried to resurrect Zeref-” Wait, that really wasn't helping. “Well, never mind, I'd hate to distract you while you're looking for Jellal! Bigger fish to fry, right? I'll just...” She backed towards the other window. “...get out of your way, then...”

“You make a pretty good consolation prize,” Cobra said. Lucy stopped.

Ugh. Being super cute was more trouble than it was worth sometimes.

“How are you doing that?” Cobra said.

“Doing what?” Lucy said, momentarily confused. Being super cute? Well, it was mostly lucky genetics, a stylish miniskirt and a gruelling skincare regimen. She couldn't help Cobra with the first two. “Okay, well, for starters, you should moisturise more-”

“What?” Cobra said. “No. ...what are you implying? How'd you even-” He stared at her for a few long seconds, like he was trying to read her thoughts off the inside of her skull, and then said, “I can hear everything. I can even hear your heart pounding.” Okay, that was creepy. “I can even hear thoughts... most people's thoughts, anyway. You're blocking me.” He folded his arms and made a face like a piqued child. “How are you doing that?”

“You hear thoughts?” Lucy said. “Oh. Oh. Weird buzzing noise?” It wasn't really a guess. Cobra nodded. “Try listening harder,” Lucy suggested.

Cobra shook his head. “You really should have stayed in the coffin.” He grinned. “I can take you out in a second, and then Cubellios and me can go get Fernandes. There'll be time to crack you open later.”

That... didn't sound like something Lucy would enjoy. She couldn't stall any more. She had to get out of there.

Cubellios and me, he'd said. She'd thought it when she first saw him. Where was the snake? It wasn't behind Cobra, which meant it would be... outside the window behind her, waiting for her to try and escape that way. And Cobra would be able to cut her off too easily if she tried to run for the stairs. There were old pots and broken pieces of furniture on the floor, like the people who'd used to live here hadn't moved out before they buried the city, but she couldn't reach them.

Did she need to, though? Cobra could hear thoughts. Most people's thoughts. If he'd let himself rely on that too much...

“Yah!” Lucy shouted, and faked hurling something towards Cobra's head. He ducked reflexively. She bolted past him and down the stairs. He was already behind her as she leapt the last few steps; for a split second, she could hear his heavy footfalls at the top of the steps. She burst out of the house - good thing the door had decayed away underground, or she'd have crashed into it – and raced down the street. Where was Cobra? He must be close behind her, but she couldn't risk taking a second to look back. Any moment she expected a hand to grab her shoulder. She needed to find a weapon! And... Cobra must have some magic besides Cubellios, but if he'd rather just use Cubellios – if she could split them up, she might have a chance.

Lucy scanned the street close to ground level, and found what she was looking for half a street ahead. A tiny window into a cellar. She put on a burst of speed, every muscle protesting, and heard Cobra curse right behind her. Lucy found to her surprise that she could suddenly run even faster.

She threw herself down by the window, grabbed the lintel and slid inside. Her boots hit dirt and skidded. She landed on her ass in a deep drift of earth.

“Cubellios!” Cobra shouted. He'd never be able to fit his shoulders through that gap, but Cubellios could get through. Lucy scrambled up and away from the window, and her outstretched hands found the door. It was still intact, and another deep drift of earth was banked against it. She couldn't get out.

There was a sinuous whisper of scales on stone behind her, as Cubellios slid through the window.

Lucy hadn't thought this one through.

* * *

“Water Lock!” A sphere of water materialised close to the top of Nirvana's leg, and with every movement the city made, water poured in to the cracks that opened up between its stones.

“Freeze!” As the water froze, it expanded. It broke the covering layer of stone apart and forced open tiny fissures in the central shaft. Chunks of rock rained down around them, making Gray dodge aside. “Good! Do it again!”

The second time, the leg broke off under its own weight. Gray dashed out of the way. Trees toppled and birds flew shrieking into the air as the leg smashed into the ground. Nirvana lurched sideways and stopped dead, its seven remaining legs planted firmly on the ground while the stub of the eighth flapped helplessly.

Gray swiped sweat from his forehead. “Good! Let's start on the next!”

The shadows rippled across Nirvana's underbelly. The rock shifted and reshaped itself, and stone poured like water into the stump of the broken leg. The core regrew and set its foot down on the ground, almost delicately; it dug into the earth nearly ten feet deep. Stone armour plating spread down the new core with a fusillade of cracking noises as it split to make space for Nirvana's movement. Nirvana shifted its weight slowly onto the new support. It held.

Gray and Juvia stared.

“Juvia's plan has proved unsuccessful,” Juvia said.

“No. It's fine,” Gray said. “If we can't break it, we'll just have to slow it down!” He chased after the city. “Come on!”

This time, Juvia pulled water out of the soil and wound it around the leg again, and Gray froze it all solid. As the leg bent, the ice around it fractured with a sound like hundreds of guns being fired. Juvia poured more water into the gaps. Together, they built up a shell of ice a foot deep all around the support, until it was visible only as a dark, blurred outline under a skin of glistening ice. Nirvana tried to move. The leg stopped twenty feet off the ground, shuddering. It couldn't extend the leg enough to put it down, and the ice was too thick and heavy for it to break.

Nirvana blew off its own leg. The magic holding it together cut out. Hundreds of tons of rock and ice blew apart in midair, and then it all came crashing down.

“Get out of the way!” Gray shouted, and sprinted away from the city. The earth turned liquid under his feet. He slipped and went sprawling on the ground.

Juvia grabbed him. “Sierra!” She transformed into a torrent of raging water. Gray was swept along in the current, gasping and sputtering. They got clear of the rockfall with barely a second to spare. Huge boulders came crashing down behind them.

“What was that?” Juvia said. “The earth seemed to turn to liquid - If that was Juvia's fault, she is very sorry.”

“No, it's that guy again!” Gray snapped, scrambling to his feet and raised his voice. “Hoteye! Get out here, you wimp!”

Several of the broken pieces of Nirvana's leg had fallen together to make a kind of cliff. Hoteye appeared on the top, still holding his book tightly to his chest. “Good evening. We still have an account to settle, yes?”

“This gentleman looks very much like Wally Buchanan,” Juvia noted. “Is it possible that he can use the same magic?”

“I don't think so. Just the earth magic, and some x-ray vision deal,” Gray said. Juvia nodded slowly, thinking.

Hoteye had gone suddenly still. “Pardon me. What was that name?”

Gray's eyes narrowed. “...Why do you want to know?”

“That's not any of your business,” Hoteye said.

Gray scowled. “Wally's not any of your business, either. You think we'd sell the guy out?”

“I think you have forgotten which of us triumphed in our last battle, yes?” Hoteye said.

Gray cracked his neck. “I was meaning to settle that score.” He settled into a fighting stance, palm out in the universal gesture for bring it on. “How about a deal? I'll tell you, if you can beat us.”

* * *

It had been a good idea, Jellal decided, watching Nirvana shift its weight onto its new leg. It was just a pity that the city's creators had thought of that as well. The two mages far below were chasing after the city, apparently wholly undaunted. Jellal wished them luck. It was reassuring, to know that there were other mages here trying to destroy the machine he'd stupidly unleashed. Even though they were most likely the same mages who had tried to kill him on sight.

A faint frown creased his forehead. This wasn't the time to think about that, though. The reconstruction had proved one thing. Despite the destruction of the control system, Nirvana was still fully operational and moving with purpose. Jellal assumed that it was still following whatever orders Brain had given it before he'd brought the tower down. It would probably stop when its instructions were completed, but until then, every step Nirvana took flattened trees and tore massive holes in the earth. If it was allowed to pass through another city...

Jellal had sensed the buildup and expenditure of an immense magical power in the moments before the support regenerated. He shut his eyes for a second, pinpointing the place, and headed that way. What he found was a domed hall, and inside that, a deep sunken basin ringed by an arcade. An immense storage lacrima stood on a pillar in the centre. Jellal took a step closer.

Oh, this was clever. He'd assumed that Nirvana would have a battery array buried deep under the city. That wasn't right. Instead, the legs themselves acted as valves drawing magical energy up from the ground. A lacrima at the top of each leg controlled the absorption rate and stored the power. That was fairly simple. The ingenious part was the connections that ran from each crystal to every other crystal; if one of the lacrima were destroyed, the others would be able to route power into restoring it. If all but one was destroyed, the one remaining lacrima would still be able to draw enough power from the ground to repair the other seven. And that wasn't even going into how rapidly the system was absorbing information and relaying it between each lacrima, just to keep the city balanced and moving. So clever! Jellal would quite happily have stood there and just watched the city work, and might actually have got distracted enough to do so if it hadn't been for an abrupt cessation in the steady influx of new energy. This leg was no longer collecting power. With the pattern broken, the other legs shuddered to a stop. Power accumulated in the central lacrima crystal, so much that the magical energy seeping through the ancient seals turned the air thick and treacly. The repair spells ran but found no damage. The system chuntered to itself, and then the connections between that lacrima and the others were abruptly cut off.

Jellal continued watching with interest for a few seconds before he realised what was about to happen. He spun around and ran, golden light flickering around him, and the lacrima detonated. The hall was blown apart. Cracked stones and tiles were hurled in all directions. When the severed leg hit the ground the crash rocked the whole city.

Jellal poked his head up. The hall was a smoking crater. There were shards of lacrima buried inches deep in the stone wall he'd dived behind. That would have been unpleasant.

He had an idea of how to destroy another one now, though. He set off at a run around the edge of the city.

* * *

Lucy scrambled back as Cubellios slid in through the cellar window, and felt something heavy shift under her foot. She snatched it up. A vase? A clay pot?

Whatever. All she needed was that it was heavy. She lurched forward. As Cubellios's coils slipped to the ground and the snake reared up, Lucy screamed and brought the pot crashing down on its head. The pot shattered. Cubellios convulsed and jerked away from her. Lucy grabbed one of the broken shards and slashed at Cubellios's eyes. The shard skidded off her scales. Of course! Because why wouldn't a giant magical poisonous snake also be super durable?

Cubellios thrashed wildly, and a blow from her tail sent Lucy flying into the door. The planks cracked. The sharp edges of the potsherd cut into her palm as she hit the ground. “Augh!” Cubellios lunged for her, jaws gaping wide. Lucy caught a glimpse of moonlight gleaming on the snake's fangs, shrieked, and drove the potsherd into the floor of Cubellios's mouth. She yanked her hand back just in time. Cubellios's jaws snapped shut reflexively. She recoiled. Lucy threw herself at Cubellios, and the snake's head was slammed into the ground under her weight. Cubellios thrashed. Lucy twisted and got her knee across the back of Cubellios's head, so she couldn't twist around and bite. Cubellios writhed, trying to throw her off. Her tail lashed at Lucy's back.

“Ugh! Stop moving!”

Lucy reached out and tore one of the loose planks in the door free. She gripped it tight in both hands and brought it down hard on the back of Cubellios's head. It took three hits before the snake stopped moving. Lucy gasped for breath, and then scrambled away, holding up the plank between her and Cubellios like a shield. Cubellios didn't move.

Blood dripped down Lucy's arm. She'd grazed herself on one of Cubellios's fangs when she stabbed her. The cut burned, but she didn't think it was poisoned. She really, really hoped it wasn't poisoned.

If Natsu and Happy had shown up during that, there was no way she wouldn't have heard them hollering, right? Ugh. She couldn't rely on those two for help, anyway. She was going to have to get out of there herself.

She went back to the door, stepping carefully over Cubellios's coils, and booted the door right under the rusted lock. The old, weak boards cracked and splintered. With another kick, she'd opened up a hole large enough for her to crawl through.

Her heart in her mouth, she counted off ten seconds. Long enough for Cobra to realise she'd broken through the door, and for him to go to cut her off that way. Then she spun around and ran for the cellar window.

Unfortunately, she slipped on Cubellios's coils and fell flat on her face. “Augh!” Her lead was slipping away. She scrambled up and boosted herself out of the window, her heart hammering in her chest. The street was empty. Where was -

“Hey! Where the hell's Cubellios?”

Lucy jolted like she'd been hit with an electric shock, and looked up. Cobra was standing on a windowsill, right over her head. She bolted, and heard him crash to the ground behind her.

She was tired, he wasn't. She'd barely got six paces before he grabbed her. Lucy struggled and tried to break free, but he grabbed both her wrists in one hand and locked his other forearm across her throat so she was hauled back against his chest. “What'd you do to Cubellios?”

Lucy gasped for breath and stamped on his feet. His arm tightened across her throat. Black spots spun in front of her eyes. Everything seemed to be suffused with an orange glow. Cobra half-turned-

“Fire Dragon's Claw!”

Cobra dodged, flinging Lucy aside rather than dragging her with him. She landed on the ground and sprawled there, sucking down greedy gasps of air.

“Why didn't you wait for us?” Natsu said. “Don't hog all the fights!” Happy was supporting him in midair. His sandals hung a foot above the pavement.

With a supreme effort of will, Lucy raised one hand and flipped him off.

Natsu was already rushing in for another attack. He roared and drew back his fist, and fire trailed behind it like the tail of a comet. “Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” Cobra sidestepped, spun, and kicked Natsu in the back as he shot past. “Urk!”

“Friends of yours?” Cobra asked Lucy. “This guy's got the loudest thoughts I ever heard. He'll never land a hit on me.”

“Natsu!” Lucy tried to shout. “This guy reads minds!”

“Listening magic! It's listening magic, come on,” Cobra said. Natsu didn't seem to hear her anyway.

Happy flew Natsu up higher, and Natsu drew in a deep breath. “Fire Dragon's Roar!”

Cobra was moving almost before Natsu opened his mouth. He dived into a covered arcade for shelter. Fire seared the stone. Lucy shrieked and covered her head with her arms. The smoke rolling off the fire stung tears to her eyes. Then, as Natsu drew in another breath, Cobra darted out of hiding, grabbed the edge of the roof and somersaulted onto it.

“You're not getting it, are you?” he said, and spread his arms out wide. “Come get me!”

“Don't!” Lucy yelled, but Natsu couldn't resist a challenge. Happy brought him swooping in for another attack, flames igniting around his feet.

“Fire Dragon's Claw!” Cobra sidestepped the kick, leapt in close and tackled Natsu out of the sky. Happy squawked and dropped him. Natsu landed on the ground with a crash. “Urk!” Cobra landed on top of him, eliciting another strangled yell. Cobra bounced to his feet again.

“You're not quick on the uptake, are you? I know what you're – why aren't you moving?”

Natsu sprawled on his back on the ground, mouth open, tongue hanging out. “Transportation...”

“Oh God,” Lucy said, and covered her face with her hands. Cobra laughed, and casually batted Happy away as the cat tried to dart in and grab Natsu.

“Motion sickness? Pretty pathetic, Dragon Slayer!” Cobra crowed. He hauled Natsu off the ground by the scarf and kicked him so hard in the gut he went flying down the street. Happy caught him before he hit the ground.

“Natsu! Stop falling down!”

“Hey!” Miraculously recovered, Natsu took the opportunity to flail around and yell. “Don't drop me!”

“Don't eat so many hamburgers!” Happy retorted. They shot into a tunnel where a broad street crossed over another, and Natsu's indignant retort echoed off the walls.

Cobra ignored them. He turned away and cocked his head on one side, looking back the way they'd come. It took Lucy a second to realise he was listening for Cubellios. He let out a long breath, so he must have been able to tell she wasn't dead. If he could still hear Cubellios from there, running away wouldn't help. The chthonian effect was stopping him from reading her mind, but it would make her really noticeable. Her best shot was to stay around and... what, exactly, hope he accidentally dropped her keys on her head?

“I'll kill your boyfriend first, then,” he said, and went after Natsu.

“That guy's not my boyfriend!” Lucy yelled plaintively after him.

“Happy!” Natsu said. “Up there!” He pointed. Happy flapped his wings and climbed until they were hanging three feet over the tunnel's exit. “We'll wait here, and then when that pointy-haired bastard comes out-” he walked his fingers through the air - “we'll jump down on his head!” He mimed a big rock falling on his walking fingers. “Splat!”

“Good idea!” Happy chirped, and they both looked down expectantly at the tunnel exit.

They waited...

They waited...

They waited...

Cobra landed on them. “I can _hear_ you guys!”

Having found a spot to watch from, Lucy let out a deep, heartfelt groan.

Happy yanked Natsu back into the air before he could hit the street again. “Augh!” Natsu shouted. “Come on, Happy!” He threw both fists over his head and set them on fire.

“Aye, sir!” Happy chirped, and divebombed Cobra. At the last second Natsu brought his fists apart to create a broad arc of flame. If Cobra had dodged to the left or right it would have caught him, but instead he dropped flat and rolled under the attack. Happy pulled Natsu out of the dive – Natsu's sandals scraped the ground – and spiraled into the sky again. Cobra got to his feet again and brushed dust off his coat.

“Easy, there! I already lost one good coat today.”

Natsu seethed. Smoke literally blew out of his ears. Happy said, “Does that guy have magic that reads minds?”

“No!” Cobra said, totally exasperated. “It's listening magic! I can hear your thoughts!” He pointed at Lucy and said “She got it a lot quicker.”

“Don't bring me into this!” Lucy yelled at him.

Natsu fixed Cobra with an intense stare. A few seconds passed in silence. Abruptly, Cobra snorted. “Crap, that was funny!”

“He's right! He can read minds!” Natsu said.

“What was the joke?” Happy said.

“Tell you later,” Natsu said. His forehead furrowed.

“Go one way, while thinking about going the other,” Cobra said. “That wouldn't work. It's useless. You don't stand a chance.” Natsu scowled. “Oh, you're still trying? Three, four – not bad ideas, but I've dealt with them all before.”

Natsu could come up with plural ideas?

“That's cheating, you bastard!” Natsu shouted, fists clenched. “Then I'll just hit you head-on!” Cobra flicked a glance back at Lucy as Natsu charged in, and casually stepped out of the way.

“And the challenger goes for a right hook! Easily dodged there by the reigning champion. Now he's coming back in for a left kick but nope, it doesn't hit – feinting left and attacking from the right, now didn't we just tell him that wouldn't work, Cubellios? That's right, Cobra, we did-”

Okay, now Cobra was just showing off. He knocked a kick aside, sidestepped as Natsu and Happy spun and slammed an elbow into Happy's back. Happy yelped, and the two of them were both knocked sideways in midair. Natsu roared. Happy climbed, and then dropped again into a divebomb, and Cobra's eyes widened. Natsu hammered a blow directly into Cobra's face. Cobra hadn't even tried to get out of the way. He staggered back with a cry of shock.

“You hit him!” Happy said, astonished. Natsu didn't answer. As Cobra reeled, he pressed the attack, slamming a kick under his ribs that knocked all the air out of his lungs.

Lucy's mouth dropped open. How on earth...?

Natsu drew his fist back with an inarticulate yell. Cobra lurched sideways, and threw himself off the roof to escape. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet. Natsu chased after him, but as he tried to drive his fist into Cobra's face again, Cobra blocked the blow and caught his fist.

“Huh,” Cobra said. “I don't know whether you're a genius or an idiot.” Lucy could clear that up for him. “Hadn't seen anyone pull that before.” But what did he _pull_?! Lucy nearly stamped her foot. Cobra bared his teeth. “Cheap tricks just aren't cutting it today.” The backs of his hands rippled and distorted into hard purple scales. His fingernails lengthened into talons. Black mist shot through with red seeped out through his skin and ate into the sleeves of his coat. Natsu yowled. Happy squealed and jerked him away. Natsu's skin was blackened and smoking.

“Ow! That hurt!” He flapped his hand in the air.

Cobra shifted back into a fighting stance, one hand out, fingers hooked. The moonlight gleamed on his claws. “I'm Cobra, the Poison Dragon. Time I got serious.”

“This guy... don't tell me...” Natsu said. “He's a Dragon Slayer?”

“What?” said Lucy. “He's what? I thought you assholes were supposed to be rare!” Mentally, she took every Dragon Slayer off her list forever, because they were all terrible. Well, not Ryos and Wendy, but they were off the list already because they were twelve.

Cobra leapt onto the side of one of the pointed roofs, bounded to the top and threw himself at Natsu. Happy yelped and tried to dive out of the way, but Cobra had already known which way the cat would move. He grabbed Natsu's shoulder. Happy couldn't support Cobra's weight as well. They all crashed to the ground.

“The poison dragon's magic destroys everything it touches,” Cobra taunted him. “You were dead from the moment you-”

Natsu made a noise that sounded like _hghk_ , his cheeks bulged, he opened his mouth and fire spewed everywhere. Cobra leapt back. Happy seized the opportunity to haul Natsu off the ground again.

“Not so fast!” Cobra darted in to strike at him. As soon as Natsu's feet left the ground, his eyes snapped open again. His hands ignited and he caught the blow on a blazing forearm. For a moment the flames cut into the poisonous mist roiling around Cobra's claws, but then Cobra pivoted and snapped a kick into his midsection. Natsu and Happy were hurled back. Cobra drew in a deep breath. Lucy could tell by now when a Dragon Slayer was about to use their roar.

“Poison Dragon's-”

Lucy flung a pot at the back of his head. It shattered on impact. Cobra's head snapped forward. For a second he stood there, head hanging, and then he raised a hand to the back of his head and turned to look at her.

On second thought, that had been a terrible idea. Lucy leapt off the roof on the far side to Cobra, staggered as she landed and went down. The rough street surface grazed layers of skin from her knees, but she almost didn't notice. She scrambled up and bolted. She was well ahead of Cobra, but he didn't even need to catch up with her. He had ranged attacks.

“Poison Dragon's Fang Thrust!”

Lucy threw a hunted look back over her shoulder. Cobra had conjured up a magic circle, and out of that circle burst a massive snake's-head of roiling poisonous fog. It shot straight for Lucy, its jaws gaping wide. Lucy screamed. Something slammed into her chest, knocking the breath out of her lungs and throwing her to the ground.

“Fire Dragon's Claw!”

Fire blossomed out across the street, and the snake's-head was blown apart into a cloud of gas. Lucy scrambled backwards, one hand pressed over her mouth, and looked up. Natsu was hovering over her. He'd protected her?

“Hey!” Natsu snapped, pointing at Cobra. He'd taken damage from that last attack. His skin was burnt and blistered. His voice was raw, but not any quieter. “I'm the one you're fighting! Don't ignore me!” Lucy stared at him in silence for a moment, then rolled her eyes. Flames blazed up around Natsu's hands. “Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” He charged Cobra. Cobra dodged.

“You just don't learn, do you?” he demanded, as Natsu and Happy sailed past him. “If this is the power of an old-style Dragon Slayer, I'm not impressed.”

“What do you mean, old-style?” Natsu demanded.

Cobra brushed dust off his coat, a little smugly. “I'm one of the new generation. I got my Dragon Slayer magic by implanting lacrima into my body.”

“Like Laxus!” Happy said. “This guy isn't a real Dragon Slayer at all!”

“A real Dragon Slayer?” Cobra said, raising one eyebrow. “There's no way for humans to learn real dragon slaying magic. Only real dragons would know that. If you ask me, your magic's a lot more questionable than mine. After all, dragons don't exist any more.”

Natsu and Lucy both flared up instantly.

“Don't judge all the real Dragon Slayers by this guy! Gajeel would kick your ass!” Lucy snapped, at the same moment that Natsu roared, “Igneel's out there, dammit!”

Oh, yeah, his dad.

“Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!” Natsu and Happy shot towards Cobra, fire trailing from both of Natsu's hands. He brought both fists forward, creating two wings of flame which hit to the left and the right. The stone walls of the houses on either side of the street caved in. Cobra raced forward, straight into Natsu's range, grabbed both his shoulders and somersaulted over his head with a yell.

“Igneel's not out there! Dragons are extinct!” He spun around. “Poison Dragon's Twin Fangs!”

Two arcs of poisonous fog so thick they were almost solid slammed into Natsu's back. “Ghuagh!” The impact hurled him into Lucy, and she was thrown flat on the ground for something like the eighth time that day. Natsu sprawled on top of her. Happy was thrown clear, and skidded to a stop ten feet beyond them.

“Augh! Natsu, get up!” She shoved at his shoulder. “Come on!” He groaned. Of course. He was on the ground. “Happy!” Lucy shouted. No, it looked like the cat was down too. She grabbed Natsu and hauled him off the ground to see if that helped. His head lolled to one side and his tongue flopped out of his mouth.

“Transportation...”

“I'm transportation?” Lucy demanded.

“This is tragic,” Cobra said. All he was missing was the tub of popcorn.

“I'll take him,” Happy said, and pulled Natsu out of Lucy's arms.

“I thought you were out!” she said, surprised.

“I'm a Fairy Tail mage too! We're harder to beat than that!” Happy said. He fluttered, holding Natsu a foot off the ground. Natsu's eyes opened again.

“Oh, the cat's back!” said Cobra. “I gotta admit, the cat is my favourite.”

Lucy made a rude gesture at him.

“What's that for?” Cobra said. “I'm paying you a compliment here. You've wasted more of my time than I thought you would.” His gaze hardened. “I'm not going to forgive you for taking Cubellios down.”

Yeah, they were dead. Lucy took a step backwards and muttered to Natsu, “What did you do before, when you were managing to hit him?”

“I stopped thinking,” Natsu said, like it was obvious. His voice came out slurred.

In retrospect, that was obvious.

“Do that again,” Lucy suggested.

“Finding out he's a Dragon Slayer threw me off,” Natsu said. He raised a hand like he meant to scratch the back of his neck, but his hand wavered vaguely in the air. “Dammit, I can't move right – we need to finish this fast!”

_That_ was his conclusion?

“Agreed!” Cobra said. He shifted until he was facing them directly, and his chin came up. He was about to attack.

Lucy's mind worked frantically. Happy wouldn't be able to carry both of them for more than a few seconds. The street was broad and empty, no cover there to take, and if they ran into one of the houses they might end up trapped. She didn't know what to do! Natsu wasn't about to come up with a plan, he was like the prototypical Fairy Tail mage-

“Poison Dragon's Roar!” A tornado of foul, poisonous air burst out of Cobra's mouth and roared towards them.

“Happy, come on!” Lucy screamed, and pelted into one of the houses. Happy and Natsu were right behind her. The house only had small windows, and stairs to the second level but no back door.

“Crap!” she shouted. “It's a dead end!”

“Why are you running?” Natsu said. “Come on, Happy, let's finish this bastard!”

Cobra appeared in the doorway. He was grinning. Of course he was grinning; they'd just trapped themselves in a small unventilated space. “I almost feel bad for you,” he said. “This is going to be like gassing rats in a trap.” He walked towards them, drawing in a deep breath as he moved.

“Don't underestimate us!” Natsu shouted, and moved to attack.

Lucy caught his arm and said “Hey, Fairy. Collapse the building.”

Cobra stopped. His smile faltered. Natsu's gaze flicked around the room. Lucy dropped flat. Natsu pointed. “Happy! Max Speed Attack!”

“Aye, sir!” Happy cannoned Natsu towards the ceiling.

“Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” Flames blossomed from the point of impact and rolled across the ceiling like a tide. Cracks rippled out in their wake. Cobra yelled in shock, and Lucy shrieked. Happy dropped down and grabbed her by the back of the shirt. The house came crashing down.

Happy wove between the falling rubble, hauling Natsu and Lucy behind him. Lucy shrieked and threw both hands over her head. Debris clipped her legs and grazed her arms. They burst out into the moonlight. Happy dropped Lucy immediately. She crashed to the ground.

“Sorry, Lucy!” he called. She rasped out something incoherent, rolled over and looked back. The dust settled, and then Cobra staggered out of it. He was holding the back of his head and his eyes were unfocused, but he was on his feet. Lucy groaned. How durable was that guy?

“Happy!” Natsu gasped. “Come on! We can take this guy down!”

“Aye!”

Lucy stared at them. She'd been taking a gamble, assuming that they would have enough strength left to bring down the house. She'd never have expected... Huh. Fairies were powerful, right?

Cobra knew the attack was coming, but she didn't think he had the agility left to dodge it. Natsu punched him square on the chin, no fire or anything. Cobra staggered back. Natsu and Happy crashed to the ground.

Or not, Lucy thought. Maybe it wasn't really that Fairies were more powerful than anyone else. Maybe it was just that they never held anything in reserve.

Cobra took a lurching step forward and fell, eyes dazed and open, one hand outstretched like he was reaching for something. “Cubellios... my prayer...” Lucy had no idea what that meant. Cobra's eyes closed.

Lucy waited a few seconds, then pushed herself laboriously to her feet. Every muscle ached. There'd be time to complain about that when she had her keys back, though. She edged closer and nudged Cobra with the tip of her shoe. She was ready to leap back and scream, but Cobra didn't move. Lucy got down on one knee, pulled his coat open and rifled through the pockets until she found her keys.

“You guys!” She hugged the keyring to her chest. “I missed you so much!”

Then she realised she was talking to keys and felt a bit silly. She clipped the ring to her belt and went to Natsu. “Hey. Are you-”

Brain shot her in the back.

* * *

Gray charged in first, slamming one fist into the other palm. “Ice-Make: Lance!” Hoteye waved a hand and brought up a jet of liquid earth to intercept the projectiles. Water rolled around the base of the plume, but before Hoteye could respond, Gray had already darted around to the other side. “Ice-Make: Geyser!” A pillar of ice erupted from under Hoteye's feet, but he leapt clear and surfed a wave of earth to another fragment of Nirvana's broken leg. He thrust out a hand.

“Earth Wave!”

Gray had been leaping from ice column to ice column to stay above ground level. Hoteye's wave scythed the pillars out from under his feet. He fell backwards, arms pinwheeling, twisting in midair. “Freeze!”

The water Juvia had been spreading over the ground crystallised instantly into a thick sheet of ice. Gray grinned savagely and rolled back to his feet. “Ice-Make: Lance!”

Hoteye gestured sharply, but this time no wall rose up to catch the spears. Earth roiled under the ice sheet, but couldn't break through. He threw himself aside a moment before the spears whistled past his head. The accounts book fell out of his hands.

Juvia brought her hands together, right over left. “Double Wave!” She swamped Hoteye in water, and Gray froze it solid around him with only his head sticking out of the top. Juvia spun a finger in the air. The water rose up, and Hoteye was spun around like a top. Gray gestured, and the ball froze to the ice. Hoteye's head lolled back, and his eyes spun dizzily.

“Ice-Make: Club!” A glistening nine-iron materialised in Gray's hands, and he rested it casually against his shoulder. “You'd be wasting your time going after Wally, anyway. He's in jail for helping your buddy Jellal try to bring Zeref back.”

Hoteye's eyes snapped back into focus. “Excuse me?”

“You'd have to plough through a whole battalion of Rune Knights and security to even get a shot at killing him,” Gray said.

“I had no intention of killing him!” Hoteye said. “Wally is my brother!”

Gray folded his arms. “Oh, so- wait, what.”

“Oh, of course!” Juvia said. “We should have realised earlier!”

“No, we shouldn't, this is ridiculous,” said Gray.

“It's not particularly strange to have estranged relatives,” Juvia pointed out.

“Not in _your_ head, maybe,” said Gray.

“Jellal concealed this from me?” Hoteye said. “He lied?”

* * *

"Hello?" Richard had said. "I have a question, and you'd be the right person to ask, correct?" He twisted his fingers together and shifted from foot to foot.

"Ask what?" Jellal had bounced up to sit on the windowsill, so he was still looking down on the taller, older boy.

"I've been looking for my brother," Richard said. "We were separated a few years ago, you see? And I haven't been able to find him again. His name's Wally. Wally Buchanan. Do you know him?"

Jellal frowned, and looked down at his swinging feet.

"You would know if he was still around, right?" Richard pressed, his heart sinking.

Jellal lifted his head and looked at Richard with such sad clear sincerity in his eyes. "I don't remember the name. I'm sorry."

It wasn't very long after that conversation that Brain arrived to find the island had had a dramatic change of leadership, and Jellal had suggested he take Richard as one of his new proteges.

* * *

“Wally's a friend of Erza's, too, so... yeah, since long before the rebellion,” Gray said.

Hoteye let out a guttural roar. Spittle flew from his mouth. Juvia took a step backwards. Hoteye tried to struggle; his head jerked wildly back and forth and cracks began to spread across his icy shell. “That lying, thieving worm! I will pay him back for this!”

Gray traded a look with Juvia, and then said “Okay.” He snapped his fingers. The ice trapping Hoteye broke into pieces. He clambered to his feet. “Sounds like you've got a right to challenge Jellal, if you want to.”

Juvia took a very slight step forward, ready to throw up a shield if Hoteye decided he would still rather take them out first, but Hoteye only spun and stormed back towards the city. Magical energy and murderous intent crackled off him like static electricity.

“Juvia is not sure that was wise.”

Gray just shrugged. “You heard that, didn't you? He's entitled to throw down with that guy.”

Juvia thought for a moment. “I suppose whichever of them wins, setting the Seis against each other can only benefit us. Either Jellal will be defeated and Hoteye will be easy to eliminate, or Jellal will be weakened when Erza-”

“Stop right there,” Gray cut in. “Saying Erza might need someone else to wear Jellal down before she fights him? That's an insult to her. She kicked his ass last time, she can do it again. It's just that if you've got a grievance with someone, you fight them over it or you let it go. That's the Fairy Tail way. Don't go bringing tactics into it!”

Juvia raised both hands. “Juvia is sorry. She has noticed that avoidance of strategy is very important to the Fairies.”

“Yeah. Don't forget it,” Gray said.

* * *

Jellal didn't stop at the first leg he passed; there was too much of a risk that it would fall on the mages below. The second would do. Outside the lacrima hall, he climbed to the roof of the opposite building. From that vantage point, the whole section of the city was laid out before him.

Jellal shut his eyes and poured magic into the ground.

The plateau hadn't been one originally. It was put together with stone magic, out of thousands of smaller – but still enormous - slabs of rock, and the joins still showed. He found the seams, and pulled them wider, and wider, and – this was taking entirely too long. He opened his eyes, pulled together three spikes of sheer magical energy, and drove them into the cracks. The fissures split wide open. Houses caved in as gaping canyons opened up under their foundations and in the middle of the streets.

The repair spells kicked in, trying to patch the ground back together, but it was too late. With a sound like distant thunder or machine-gun fire, the plateau cracked under its own weight. A massive slab of stone snapped off. The boom as it hit the ground was deafening. Nirvana lurched to one side. Jellal grabbed onto his roof's spire and hung on until it stabilised, then slid down and went to inspect the damage. The broken piece of the city, and the leg that went with it, had crushed more than a hundred trees when it fell. There was no sign that the city was regenerating. Jellal doubted Nirvana had the resources to regenerate from losing that much of its bulk.

He smiled. Another two of those would do it, if he got the chance.

“What on earth was that?” Juvia said, a couple of hundred feet below.

“Giant explosion? Must be Natsu,” Gray said.

Across the city, Erza had heard the boom. So had Midnight. So had Hoteye.

* * *

“Is it true that you're a Dragon Slayer?” Ryos asked. They were creeping through the city, staying out of sight. Wendy followed closely behind Ryos; she wasn't sure what they were even looking for, and he was a lot better at hiding himself in the shadows than she was.

“I'm the Dragon Slayer of the Sky,” Wendy said. “But I'm not very good at it. I can support other people with my magic, and heal them, but...”

“Can you fix people when they're sick?” Ryos asked. Wendy thought there was something strange about his voice. She couldn't see his face, though. He was peeking out around the corner they were hiding behind.

Wendy nodded, remembered he couldn't see her either, and said “Um, yes!”

“That sounds more useful than what I do,” Ryos said, and stepped out into the street. “I'll go first. You-” He broke off and gasped as a blur swept past him. A bloody red slash opened across the bridge of his nose.

“Ryos!” Wendy squeaked. “What happened?”

Ryos stumbled backwards, hands raised defensively. More small cuts appeared across his hands, and then Racer booted him in the chest. Ryos hit the wall with a thud that knocked all the air out of his lungs. Wendy screamed.

“Did you think you'd be safe just because you're kids?” Racer said. “This is the Oracion Seis you're dealing with here.” He flipped the knife from one hand to the other. “Playtime's over, children.”

* * *

Lucy fell forward, onto Natsu.

“Natsu!” Happy yelped. “Wake up!” He yanked on fistfuls of Natsu's hair, but after the poison and the transportation, Lucy falling on him had been the finishing blow. Happy pulled Lucy's hair instead. Lucy's eyes fluttered open, just in time to see Brain kick Cobra casually in the ribs, note the lack of movement, and step unconcernedly away from him.

“You asshole, you shot me,” she rasped, and then regretted it, because now he knew she was still conscious and that was a terrible comeback anyway.

“Don't take it personally,” Brain said. “Actually, I quite admire you. I like your strength.” He smiled. He smiled like he'd learned how to do it out of a book. Lucy tried to twist and reach for her keys, but her fingers only spasmed helplessly. “You seem astute. You must understand that Cobra and Angel have left me with a problem.”

“Mhmm,” Lucy said, still trying to get to her keys.

“They both failed me, and there is no room in my Seis for failures. But, of course, I need a full set. They have to be replaced.” Suddenly, Lucy had a very bad feeling. Brain looked down at her. He was still smiling. “Who better to replace them with than the mages who bested them?” Lucy made a frantic swipe for her keys. Her fingertips skittered over the ground. “Enough,” Brain said, and slammed the butt of his staff into the back of her head. Lucy blacked out.

Brain stooped, tossed Lucy over his shoulder and took hold of the back of Natsu's jacket.

“Stop it!” Happy said. “Let them go!” He fluttered into the air again. “Max Speed Attack-”

Brain knocked him out of the air with his staff. “Dragon Slayers and their pets,” he said. “You might be useful. If only as a hostage.” He gestured. Dark energy swirled around Happy, twining around his neck like a leash. He struggled and clawed at the dark energy, but couldn't escape. “Ow! Let us go!”

Brain ignored the cat's protests. Dragging his new recruits behind him, he walked back through the silent city to what was left of the control tower – that ungrateful brat would regret that he was ever born – and picked his way carefully through the wreckage to reach the staircase leading down. Below the monumental tower lay the King's Room, the epicentre of the Nirvana system itself. With the destruction of the control system, the centre of the room was filled with wild unfocused magical energy and strobing between harsh white light and impenetrable darkness.

“Behold, Nirvana!” Brain said. “This device has the power to spread darkness through every just and noble heart, to destroy the bonds between all legal mages, to tear apart the foundations of society itself. Nirvana will taint your hearts black and you will become my loyal servants. You will-”

Natsu bit him.

“Augh!” Brain dropped him and stamped hard on Natsu's head. Natsu made a faint strangled _urk_ noise and stopped moving. Brain drummed his fingers on the staff, considering staving the boy's head in, and restrained himself. It wouldn't last.

He hurled the three of them into the vortex.

 

* * *

A/N: Don't ask me how Hoteye and Richard managed to miss each other so consistently on a tiny, tiny island. I don't even know. Ask Mashima.


	30. Chapter 30

Wendy threw out both hands. “O swift wind that runs through the heavens – Vernier!” She and Ryos were both lit up by a brilliant aura. “It's support magic, it'll make you faster!”

“Trying to beat me at my own game?” Racer said.

Shadows swirled around Ryos's fist, blotting out the light of Wendy's magic. He scrambled to his feet. “Shadow Dragon's Slash!” He lunged forward, and the world lurched around him. The street blurred with speed; Wendy, still illuminated by her magic, was a smear of brilliant light against the darkness. Ryos cried out and staggered. Racer drove an elbow down into the back of his neck, and Ryos's face smacked into the pavement. He hadn't even felt himself fall.

Racer laughed. “You might have made your bodies faster, but your minds can't keep up the pace!” Wendy gasped. Racer snatched her off her feet, spun and flug her away from him. She hit the road, rolled and then lay in a huddled ball with her arms over her head.

“Wendy!” Carla screamed. Racer blurred, and suddenly he was standing over Wendy with his knife glittering in his hand. “No!” Her wings burst out of her back. She shot towards them like she meant to throw herself in between Wendy and the blade.

Ryos pushed himself up on one elbow. “Shadow Dragon's Club!" Racer sidestepped the blow easily, but it left Carla the second she needed to grab Wendy and haul her out of the way.

“Ugh. You're still trying?” Racer said. “You lost this race already. You're eating my dust.” He flipped the knife from one hand to the other and back again, over and over until the blade blurred into a gleaming silver arc. He could have cut both their throats by now. He was just playing with them.

“Ryos, you're a Dragon Slayer?” Wendy gasped. “Why didn't you say?” She shook her head furiously to clear it and raised both hands again. “O sky that shields the earth – Armour!” Another glowing aura swirled around Ryos and sank into his skin. But only around Ryos. Wendy pointed up. “Carla!”

Carla's wings snapped down. “Max Speed!” Racer's knife slashed the air behind them, but Wendy and Carla were already gone. They accelerated impossibly fast into the sky.

They'd left? They'd run?

Racer let out a bark of laughter. “Looks like your girlfriend just dumped you!”

Ryos staggered to his feet and drew in a deep breath. “Shadow Dragon's Roar!” A maelstrom of darkness burst from his mouth. Racer dodged it. He raced up the wall, somersaulted backwards at the top and landed behind Ryos. He grabbed a fistful of Ryos's hair and yanked his head back. Ryos cried out and grabbed reflexively at Racer's arm.

“You screwed with the wrong people, kid,” Racer said, and drew his knife across Ryos's throat. Ryos's cry cut off into a choked gurgle. Racer let go of his hair and let him fall forward. For a second he watched the kid, the darkness pooling slowly around him, and then turned away. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to clean off the knife. The white cloth showed a thin smear of blood. Racer frowned at it.

Wendy's armour magic had done its work; the knife had only left a shallow cut behind. Ryos rolled over and lashed out with the shadows he'd been gathering around himself.

"Gah!" The shadows hurled Racer across the street into a wall. Ryos scrambled up and ran. Racer struggled to his feet and swung his arm up. “Dead Grand Prix! Start your engines!” He brought his arm down. Lights flared in the distance. Engines rumbled. Ryos skidded to a stop and looked back. Dozens of motorbikes came roaring down the street. They rushed around Racer like water pouring around a rock. Ryos yelped and covered his head with the arms. The onrushing headlights were blinding. Racer leapt aboard a motorbike and gunned the engine. “Welcome to the motor show from hell, kid!” The bikes blocked Ryos in and the engines deafened him. A handlebar clipped his side and sent him staggering. Racer ran him down.

The armour spell shattered from the force of the impact, and Ryos was flung through the air. He smashed into the ground, rolled, and lay still. Racer leapt off his bike. Ryos struggled to get up, dizzy and gasping. Racer grabbed him by the back of his neck to hold him in place and drove his knife up under Ryos's ribs.

Ryos screamed. “Shadow Drive!” Darkness burst out of his skin and swallowed him up entirely. He slid through Racer's grip and fell into the street, another shadow vanishing into the night.

“Oh? What are you trying now?” Racer said, to the air. “At this rate, my name'll be dirt.” He stood up. Ryos hid inside his shadow and waited. His panic subsided, smothered by a dull, weightless calm like the last seconds before drowning. In this form, he didn't have breath to catch or a heart to hammer or eyes to see; his awareness spread through the darkness lying heavy in the street. Racer's shadow turned its head away. Ryos darted out of hiding and away, but Racer's head snapped around impossibly quickly and he saw the shadows move. He tore his jacket open and yanked something free from the inside. “Take this!” He hurled the explosive lacrima after Ryos.

When it went off, the light looked like a sudden void in Ryos's awareness, a black hole trying to suck him in, and the world shook around him like someone had picked it up and rattled it from the force of the blast. He turned and fled in the other direction. Racer saw him move. The second lacrima hit dead-on. The bright light knocked Ryos out of his shadow form, and gravity came crashing back. The blast hurled him to the ground. He skidded, and slammed into the base of a wall with an inarticulate cry of pain. The dim moonlight was blinding. The stab wound under his ribs flared into sudden sharp agony. Ryos gasped for breath and curled up around the injury.

“Found you!” Racer kicked him over. Ryos tried to summon up an attack, but it guttered out. He was too tired to use his shadow form again. His other arm wouldn't move without pain lancing up to his shoulder. Racer put his boot on Ryos's good arm. His knife blurred in and out of focus. “Third time lucky,” he said. There wasn't anything else Ryos could do. He was going to die.

Something moved in the sky behind Racer's head. He heard a scream.

“Sky Dragon's Roar!”

Racer looked up, and the hurricane blew him off his feet. Howling wind whirled around them. Ryos covered his head with his arm and huddled down, but the raging winds flung Racer through the wall of a house. The stone shattered like eggshell. The winds subsided, and Ryos dragged in a grateful breath. Dust skittered down the street. There were scratches on his arms where flying debris had grazed him.

Wendy and Carla dropped out of the sky. “Ryos! Are you okay?”

Ryos slumped back, gasping, hand pressed over the knife wound. “Thanks,” he rasped. “Really. Helpful.” That wasn't meant to sound sarcastic at all, but Wendy flinched.

“I'm sorry!” Tears dripped down her face. “I'm so sorry! I was only trying to get out of his range! But I didn't know how to tell you without him knowing, and then we lost you because it was so dark and we only found you again when we saw the explosions!”

“Wha?” Ryos said. “Range?”

“I'm not done yet!” Carla's head snapped around. Wendy turned to look, and gasped. Ryos looked past her. Racer staggered out of the hole in the building. Blood was dripping from his mouth.

“We're all inside his range!” Wendy said. “Oh, no!” She covered her face with her hands. “I've ruined it!”

Carla grabbed her arm. “Wendy, pull yourself together!”

“Range? What?” said Ryos.

“As a member of the Oracion Seis-” Racer tore open his jacket to show the rest of the explosive lacrima attached to his chest. “-I can't allow myself to be defeated!”

“Wendy!” Carla shouted. Wendy yelped and brought her hand slicing down through the air. “Sky Dragon's Slash!” The air rippled. The buildings flickered like they were looking at them through a heat haze. Racer dodged. The arc smashed into the wall behind him like a blunt-force Water Slicer.

Racer darted forwards out of the dust cloud, shouting, with his arms flung wide. The lacrima on his chest started to glow. “Victory or death!” His foot came down on a loose rock. He slipped. His arms pinwheeled frantically.

“Shadow Dragon's Lance!” Ryos threw out his hand, fingers spread, and the shadows around him fractured into tiny pieces. “Demon Shards!” He hurled them all at Racer.

Racer threw an arm over his face before the spell hit. It didn't help. It was like being caught in a storm of razorblades, and Racer was caught off-balance, too. Shards peppered the street around him, sliced into his arms and torso, shredded his jacket and cut chips from the lacrima array bound to his chest. The glow died. Racer hit the ground. Ryos fell back, wheezing.

“Ryos!” Wendy leant over him. “Are you okay?” Against the dark sky, her face glowed like the moon. Ryos started to worry that he had a concussion.

“No,” he said. “Wha-” His voice came out blurry with fatigue. He swallowed and tried again. “What do you mean, range?”

Wendy was looking at Carla. “Is he going to attack us again?”

Carla's face went blank and her eyes slipped half-closed, and then she shook her head. “No.”

Wendy let out her breath and smiled. “That's such a relief! Thank you, Carla!”

“Range,” Ryos said, more loudly. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh! Sorry! Um, Racer wasn't really moving fast at all!” Wendy said. Ryos stared at her. “If he was he would have been – um- wait, I should-” She generated a blue glow around her hands and pressed them both over Ryos's sternum.

“The Oracion Seis wasn't in fact employing speed-boosting magic,” Carla explained shortly. “Wendy knew that something was off about the situation, because the Seis wasn't creating the air disturbances that he should have been-”

“Right. Obvious,” Ryos said faintly.

“-but it was only when Vernier failed that it became clear what the problem was. The Seis wasn't speeding himself up. He was slowing down your perceptions. Once we were out of his zone of influence, Wendy was able to hit him.” Carla patted Wendy on the back with a proud look.

“Um, really, I didn't- um- it was a lot harder than Carla says it was-” Wendy mumbled, turning pink. She ducked her head and focused all her attention on Ryos's injuries. It was much better now. It didn't feel like he was getting stabbed again every time he breathed. “It's not very deep. You'll be okay,” Wendy said. “You turned into a shadow, right? That was really cool!”

Ryos flushed.

“How'd you do that?”

“Uh. It's not important,” Ryos said. “Shadow Dragon Slayer thing.” He didn't want to talk about Shadow Drive. He didn't like using Shadow Drive.

“Why didn't you say you were a Dragon Slayer?”

“Gajeel doesn't like it,” Ryos said.

“Oh.” Wendy blinked a few times. “Um... that is... he seems very...” She groped for something positive to say. Several seconds ticked by in silence. “Maybe he has a good reason for that? He'll be pleased that we beat one of the Seis, right?” She glanced fearfully back at Racer's unconscious body. “I can't believe we beat him! That was really scary...” She straightened up and poked the tips of her index fingers together nervously.

Ryos didn't say anything for a moment. Apprehension dawned on him. It felt like a fist clenching around his stomach. “No. He'll be pissed,” he said.

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes. For a split second she thought she'd gone blind, and then the darkness flashed into harsh searing white light. Then darkness again, then light - She covered her eyes with her hand, squinting between her fingers, and rolled over. She couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. The light bleached everything to stark whiteness and the darkness was so absolute it felt like the world had vanished away from around her. She shut her eyes tight, and felt a stone floor under her. She reached out, and her fingers found Natsu's scarf.

Lucy felt up his scarf to his shoulder and jabbed her fingers into his arm. He didn't move.

Oh, yeah. Transportation.

Her mind felt foggy. It took her a while to decide whether she should leave him or not. He was heavy, and he wasn't going to help her get out of there, but he'd been useful and he might be useful again. She could always drop him later.

Lucy got a tight grip on Natsu's jacket and climbed to her feet. Dragging him behind her, she staggered away. It took a long time to reach the edge, and she was sure she'd been walking in circles, but she grit her teeth and kept moving and finally staggered out into grey darkness. Lucy raised her free hand to her eyes and blinked furiously while she waited for her eyes to adjust. With the vortex behind them, their shadows flashed thick and sharp-edged on the floor. Happy had been hanging onto Natsu's scarf. He blinked a couple times. His wings unfurled.

“Impressive, finding your way out by yourself.”

Lucy looked around and saw a blurry figure, standing by the equally blurry door. She dropped Natsu, shook her head and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand.  “Who are you?” Behind her, Happy pulled Natsu off the ground with an 'oof'.

“Your guild master,” the figure said. “You've performed impressively. I'm willing to offer you two places in my Oracion Seis.”

The fog cleared. “Uh... huh,” Lucy said. “Okay. Cool.” She shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

“You're not my guild master,” Natsu said. His voice was still raw and slurred. “The old man is. Who the hell are you?”

Lucy guessed that they would argue about that for a minute. She fumbled her keys free from her belt and flicked through them. All the keys she'd taken from Angel were still there.

“I don't think you understand the situation here,” Brain said.

“You're trying to get me to join your stupid guild, I get it perfectly,” Natsu said. “We're Fairy Tail mages! We already belong to the best guild in the world!”

“Aye!” Happy chirped. Natsu held up a hand, and Happy smacked his tail against it.

“I am one with dominion over the stars,” Lucy said, and Natsu and Brain both looked around. “O Spirits, heed my call and pass through the gate! Scorpio, Caelum!”

“Hey, Aquarius's master! We're here!” Scorpio sang out, appearing in a flash of light. “Hey now. What's that crazy thing?” Angel's Caelum hovered silently in Flight Form. It looked a little different to Lucy's Caelum; the eye was smaller and there were four dark dots around it.

“Don't mind me,” Lucy said over her shoulder to the other three, and switched her attention back to the spirits. “Hi! Would you like to make a contract with me?”

Natsu, Happy and Brain, being totally uninterested in the legalities of summoning, went back to their argument.

“This isn't an offer I would extend to many people,” Brain said. He drummed his fingers on his staff. “You should give it more consideration.”

Natsu duly considered it, and then said “Nope. Still don't like you.” He folded his arms and stuck out his chin.

“Amicability has nothing to do with it. It's a purely business arrangement, with mutual benefit on each side,” Brain said. “Surely it's rankled, to have the limitations of a legal guild imposed on one as gifted as you?”

“What limitations?” Natsu said, genuinely bemused.

“Tuesdays and Saturdays off, okay. Do you want to review that in a few months, or would you rather just say if there's a problem? ...okay, great! Thank you, Scorpio!” Lucy smiled widely. “Could you please stick around for a moment? Thanks!” She turned to Caelum. “Is one flash for yes, two for no alright with you?”

“What is it that you truly desire?” Brain said. “Wealth? Power?”

“You shutting up,” said Natsu.

“Fish!” said Happy. Brain ignored him.

“Membership in a legal guild is holding you back,” he said. “Why willingly submit yourself to the authority of the Magic Council? You could do so much-”

“When do we submit to the authority of the Magic Council?” Natsu said. “We're Fairy Tail! We don't submit to anything! Especially not you!”

Lucy was still otherwise occupied. “And do you have any particular preference for sword or cannon form?” She waited a moment. One flash. “Sword form?” One flash. “Uh-huh. Okay. Thank you very much, Caelum! Sword Form.” The chisel transformed. Lucy weighed it carefully in her hands – the balance point was a little further towards the chisel end than on her other one – and perched it against her shoulder.

“Your companion seems a great deal more amenable,” Brain said. “Shouldn't you-”

Natsu cut in again. “She's not my companion! She's dating that scrap-metal bastard.”

“What?” Lucy spun around. “No, I'm not! I told you before!”

“If you're not dating, how come you hang around with him so much?”

“He has positive qualities!” Lucy snapped, praying Natsu wouldn't ask her to list them.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“I don't have time to tell you all of them,” Lucy said loftily, and turned back to her spirits. “Sorry about that idiot!” She walked casually around Scorpio, like she was just checking out his tail-gun. This put her behind Brain and Natsu.

“This is a disappointment,” Brain said. “I'd assumed you would realise how fortunate you are to be offered such an opportunity.” He lifted his staff.

“Natsu!” Happy squawked. Fire glowed around Natsu's fists, but it wasn't the same raging inferno that he'd been able to conjure up before.

Lucy pointed. “Blast him.”

Scorpio dropped to all fours and aimed his stinger at Brain. Natsu yelped. Brain looked back over his shoulder, and Scorpio blasted him. Happy whipped Natsu out of the way. Brain was flung into the opposite wall by the impact and blinded by the stinging sand.

He actually seemed surprised. Lucy guessed nobody's told him what happened to her last guild master.

“Come on!” she yelled, and bolted for the door. “Happy! Get out here!” There was no point to him flying indoors. “Scorpio, go back! Gate of the Chisel, open! Caelum!” She shot out the door. Happy was close behind her, Natsu's boots swinging in the air.

Brain clawed free of the sand heap and shook his head furiously to shake the sand from his hair. “Trash... those ungrateful worms...” He hauled himself to his feet, leaning on his staff. “Those brats will bitterly regret crossing me!” He stormed out of the King's Room and up the long staircase. As soon as he reached the door to the street, Lucy's voice shouted “Fire!”

Brain threw up a shield of translucent green energy. Caelum's cannon blast splashed across the shield and went out. Natsu and Happy came in roaring from the opposite direction. “Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!” Brain conjured up a shield for that, too. The wall bowed inwards from the impact, but didn't shatter. “Yow!” Happy shot away again while Natsu flapped his sore hand in the air.

Brain was caught between his own shields, but he could still see Lucy, standing behind the Caelum as it recharged, and Natsu and Happy hovering above. The deceitful brat deserved punishment first, he decided, and raised his staff. “Dark Capriccio!”

The beam went straight through his shield, shattering it into a thousand disintegrating pieces. Lucy screamed. “Caelum! Sword Form!” She grabbed the chisel and threw herself to one side as the spell hit. It drilled a trough in the street where she'd been standing and blew the house behind her into rubble. If she hadn't moved, it would have ripped her to shreds.

Brain raised his staff high over his head. Dark energy swirled around the lacrima in the skull's mouth and seemed to twist, for a moment, into screaming distorted faces. “Dark Rondo!” He brought his staff down. Released, the energy blast filled the whole street. There was nowhere to run. The spell obliterated an entire block of houses, leaving nothing behind but a crater and a cloud of choking dust. Lucy and Caelum had vanished. Brain hadn't seen it, but they'd vanished a split second before the spell actually hit.

Brain laughed. “A fitting punishment. Trash should be made to disappear!”

“Don't act like you're winning, you bastard!” Natsu and Happy swooped around the edge of Brain's shield. “Fire Dragon's Roar!”

Brain just laughed and conjured up another shield, right inside Natsu's open mouth. Natsu let out a muffled squawk. Fire spewed from his ears. “You forget that I've dealt with Dragon Slayers before! Your tricks are-”

Natsu threw his head back, shouted something barely recognisable as “Fire Dragon's Snort!”, and blew fire out of his nose. Brain shouted a curse and blocked the attack on his staff. His cloak caught light. The hand that gripped his staff burned and blistered. Brain gesticulated wildly with his other hand. “Dark Toccata!” He fired off a volley of small green orbs, like a hail of bullets. Happy yelped and whipped Natsu out of the way. Natsu was spitting and scrubbing at his mouth.

“Happy! I think I swallowed my own fire!”

“That doesn't matter, Natsu!”

“Of course it matters! It's gross!”

Happy dived into one of the houses, Natsu's protests trailing behind him. Brain threw off his smouldering cloak and jacket, and cursed. “That brat will pay for this!” He switched his staff to the other hand and lifted it high. “Dark Capriccio!” He blew a hole clear through the house they'd darted into. The dust settled. There was no movement.

Brain stalked down the street, staff held at the ready, and ducked into the house by the hole he'd blown in the wall. He looked around. There was no sign of the boy or his cat. Had they hidden upstairs?

There was a quiet thud behind him. He looked back. One of Natsu's sandals was lying on the floor. He looked up. Natsu was sprawled on one of the rafters, green in the face. Happy lay on his back next to him, stomach moving up and down as he panted. Happy looked down, and met Brain's stare.

“Natsu! He found us!”

“Grauagh,” said Natsu.

“Dark Capriccio!”

Happy shrieked, grabbed Natsu and hauled him off the rafter just in time. The spell blew the house a new skylight. Happy flapped his wings desperately and hauled Natsu up the stairs, though his feet bumped on every step. A narrow bridge with no parapet ran between the upper storey and the house across the street. Happy and Natsu escaped through the doorway and climbed into the sky again. Brain pursued them. “Dark Toccata!”

Happy dodged the attack, but barely. The spheres clipped Natsu's shins. He yelped and pulled his knees up to his chest. “Come on, Happy!” He threw both arms over his head, and flames ignited around his fists. “One more!”

“Aye!”

“Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!”

Natsu and Happy swooped in, fire trailing behind Natsu's hands like the tail of a comet. He swung his arms and swept the wings towards Brain. Brain casually conjured up a shield. The wings crashed against the barrier and broke like a wave. Fire poured down into the street. Lucy shrieked.

Brain's head snapped around. Lucy was sprawled in the street, her knees and Angel's Caelum both pulled up to her chest. The cannon was still charging. Her eyes were wide, but they bugged out of her head when she met Brain's stare.

“You're still crawling around?” Brain said.

“Erk,” said Lucy.

Okay. Plan A really hadn't worked.

“Lucy!” Natsu shouted. “Come on, Happy!” The cat summoned up some last reserve of energy and dropped into a dive.

Brain thrust out both hands, fingers spread. “Dark Gravity!”

It felt like a huge weight falling on Lucy's back, knocking the air out of her lungs, and she reflexively grabbed onto Caelum. Happy and Natsu plummeted out of the sky, screaming. They crashed into Lucy, and then the ground split open underneath them. Lucy let out an incoherent scream. Caelum shifted into Flight Form, and her fingers slipped off the chisel's smooth shell. She grabbed wildly for its halo ring, Natsu caught her arm and then Lucy was hanging from Caelum by one hand, holding onto Natsu and Happy with the other, with a vast sucking empty space underneath them. “Augh!” Her arms felt like they were being torn out of their sockets. “Natsu!” He groaned. Lucy yanked at his fingers, trying to throw him off, but his arms were locked tight around her neck.

“It's too late for that,” Brain said. “You should never have dared to defy me. I am the judge of light and darkness now! And soon, I will be the ruler of the world!” He raised his staff. Roiling green energy swirled around it. “Dark Rondo!”

Lucy's Caelum shot him in the back.

Brain was hurled forward. He crashed into the road ahead of them, and his staff flew out of his hand.

“Caelum, up!” Lucy gasped. She tried to push extra power into the chisel, and it shuddered up a few feet. She flung Happy onto the side of the pit and, with Caelum's help, hauled herself and Natsu over the lip.

Brain wasn't moving. Lucy shoved Natsu aside and pulled Angel's Caelum close to her chest. “Good job. You did a really good job, Caelum.” She looked past Brain and raised a hand to thank her original Caelum, as well. It was sitting on a rooftop two hundred feet away, in Cannon Form. She'd sent it to find a sniping position before Brain was even out of the building. That was Plan B.

Brain still wasn't moving. Lucy watched him warily for a second, in case he was only playing dead, and then decided not to risk it. She made a finger gun and aimed it squarely at his back. Caelum fired again. The blast blew Brain over the edge of the pit, and he fell into the darkness of the tunnels below. That ought to do it.

To be ready to shoot again so quickly, Caelum must have started recharging as soon as it fired the first shot. Lucy loved her cannon so much. “Gates of the Chisels, close!” Both of them blinked out.

Having two Caelums – Caeli? - could get confusing. Maybe she'd call them Caelum One, for the first one she'd got, and Caelum A, for the one she'd taken off Angel. That way they couldn't argue over which one was best, right?

Slowly, she clambered to her feet. “Happy? Are you okay?”

“I like this,” Happy said dreamily. He was staring at the sky. “I like... not moving...” They'd been through two battles, Lucy remembered, and she'd only really fought one.

In the corner of her vision, something moved. She whipped around. It wasn't Brain. It was his staff. It hovered in the air, its eyes glowing, and its jaws clacked on the lacrima jammed between its teeth. “That fool!” Its voice seemed to come from nowhere. “Being defeated by infants? He shames the Seis!”

Happy gasped. “The staff is talking!”

“I'll have to dispose of you brats myself!” the staff said. “Fear the power of-”

Lucy grabbed it. “Hey! What are you?”

“I am Klodoa! The seventh member of the Oracion Seis!” the staff said. “I have woken from my slumber to annihilate-”

Lucy squatted down and whacked its head against the ground. “The seventh of a team of six? Don't kid yourself.”

“Stop interrupting me!” Klodoa twisted and whacked her with his other end. Lucy squawked and let go. Klodoa tried to zip off. Lucy grabbed him by the end and was dragged yelling and cursing down the street. She threw her whole weight on the staff to hold it back, and Klodoa went limp. Lucy crashed to the ground. Klodoa tried to get away again.

“Lucy is losing to a stick,” Happy said.

“Shut up!” Lucy yelled. She grabbed Klodoa by the back of the neck and the tail and hung on tight as he thrashed about. “Right!” She rolled over and sat up, facing Natsu, and leant her knee on Klodoa to hold him down. “You're a magic staff. Can you make fire?”

Happy's ears pricked up. He pulled at Natsu's jacket. “Natsu!”

“Unhand me or I will destroy you!”

“Oh, like your boss just destroyed us?” Lucy said. “If you don't cooperate with me, then  
destroy you. What about that?”

With prodigious effort, Happy hauled Natsu off the ground again.

“You want fire?” Klodoa said. “I'll give you fire!” The lacrima orb glowed, and then a massive plume of fire shot from the skull's eye sockets. Lucy squawked. Happy dived towards the flames. Natsu stretched out his hands and opened his mouth wide. The fire poured down his throat.

“Oh, oops,” said Klodoa.

“You didn't think that one through, did you?” Lucy said. “Natsu, are you feeling better?

Natsu grinned. Sparks leapt between his teeth. “Now I've eaten, I'm all fired up!”

Lucy smiled. “Want to demonstrate?” She slammed Klodoa's face into the ground hard enough that the skull and the lacrima both cracked. Klodoa yelled. Lucy brought the lacrima smashing down again, and the crack spread. She tossed the staff into the air. “Burn this!” Klodoa yelped and tried to get away.

“Fire Dragon's Roar!”

The staff and skull were vaporised. The lacrima shattered from the heat, and shards rained down around Lucy. Apparently the staff wasn't smart enough to figure out that Lucy was going to destroy it whatever. She couldn't have it running off to warn the other Seis.

Natsu laughed, and punched the air a couple of times. “That was great! Where'd that Brain guy go? I'll kick his ass now!”

“I already did that,” Lucy said. “Plan B. I told you.”

“Oh, right,” Natsu said, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Then...” He pointed at Lucy. “I challenge you! Fight me, Lucy!”

“I forfeit,” Lucy said instantly, because wow, what a stupid idea.

“Hey!” Natsu said. “That's no fair! Why-” Happy dropped him. “Urk!”

“Uwah,” Happy said. “Sorry, Natsu! You're too heavy!”

Natsu was out again. Even though he'd just eaten? How annoying. It was like he had an on-off switch.

“Maybe we should leave him here,” Lucy said.

Happy tipped his head back and frowned up at her. “Hey... what are you saying that for?”

“If you can't carry him, he's not going to be any use,” Lucy said.

“I'll carry him, then!” Happy gripped the back of Natsu's jacket, unfurled his wings and tried to take off, but he didn't have the energy to get off the ground. Lucy watched. Happy turned, braced his back against Natsu's shoulders and tried to push him up. He got about halfway, and then his knees gave way. He fell down. Natsu fell on top of him.

Lucy changed tack. “He'd probably be safer if we stashed him in a building somewhere and went to find the other Fairies.”

“No!” Happy said. “I don't care what's safest! I'm staying with Natsu!”

“Okay, okay,” Lucy said, both hands raised placatingly. She thought for a second. She still wasn't sure if Natsu's occasional usefulness outweighed his... general uselessness, even recharged. Happy's reaction, though, had reminded her that it'd be pretty unpleasant if she ditched them and then ran into the other Fairies. She looked around. There were still more Seis out there, too, so she'd need one of her spirits anyway... She could call Auriga to lug him around. Auriga wasn't a combat spirit, though, and the roads were uneven. Or they had giant holes blown in them.

She reached for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Bull! Taurus!”

“Miss Lucy!” Taurus's voice boomed out across the city. Lucy frantically indicated for him to keep it down. Taurus didn't notice. “Your rack is still the best!”

“Shush!” Lucy said. “Taurus, there's dangerous people around! Don't yell about my – about me when anyone could hear you!” Taurus looked appropriately abashed and covered his mouth with his axe. Lucy relented. “Andromeda's okay, right? Caelum was fine, and I was sure I saw her go before that spell hit, but I want to make sure.”

Taurus nodded fervently. “And she looked _incredible_ when she came back!”

“Oh. That's... good. I guess,” Lucy said. She pointed to Natsu and Happy. “Can you grab those two, please?”

Taurus scooped Natsu and Happy up and tossed them casually over his shoulder like they were sacks of potatoes. “Urk!” Natsu said. Happy clambered up to sit on Taurus's head and hung onto his horns like they were handlebars.

“Lucy! You look so short from up here!”

Lucy ignored that. “I'm getting out of this place. It's creepy. I'm going to find my team.” Juvia was probably running around like a maniac trying to find her. “Come on. We might run into the other Fairies on the way.” Or the rest of the Seis, in which case Lucy wanted the backup. Natsu wheezed on Taurus's shoulder. And the cannon fodder, she added mentally.

Happy had a different suggestion. “We should take over Nirvana and hold Crocus City ransom for a whole barrel of fish!”

“One barrel of fish?” Lucy said. “Crocus City's worth a lot more than a whole barrel of fish!”

Happy thought about that, then brightened up. “A _million_ barrels of fish!”

“...now you've gone too far in the other direction... It wouldn't work, anyway. The control system's damaged. We can't control it. It's probably going haywire.”

“We don't have to tell them that,” Happy said.

“I vote no on the fish ransom anyway,” Lucy said. “Taurus, vote no.”

“Moo!” Taurus said promptly. “Noo. No.”

“You've been outvoted,” Lucy said. Happy let out a little miaow of protest. “Okay, how about... we find the others, take out the rest of the Seis, collect the reward, and then you spend all your share on fish?”

Happy poked his fingers together. “...how much fish is that?”

Uh... double the bounty on Angel... divide into three sections – Natsu's could be smallest - how much did a fish cost, anyway? Lucy wasn't the best at sums. She made up a number and said firmly “Thirty-seven barrels.”

Happy's eyes glowed. “Aye!”

“Good,” Lucy said. “Come on!”

* * *

“Gajeel's supposed to be fighting the Seis!” Ryos said. Fighting people was always Gajeel's job. He didn't like competition. He didn't like people even thinking there could be a competition. That was why he'd told Ryos not to let anyone find out that he was a Dragon Slayer as well. He'd been better, lately, he'd tried to teach Ryos some stuff, but that was only because of Lucy and Juvia, and Lucy and Juvia weren't around. Fear churned in his gut. “We have to kill him. Before he kills us.”

“What?” said Wendy.

“Excuse me,” Carla said, in that tone of voice where 'excuse me' meant 'excuse _you_ '. “What are you talking about? Killing him?”

“I don't want to kill anyone!” Wendy said.

“Don't help, then.” Ryos clambered to his feet and had to lean over, one hand on the wall and the other pressed against his chest.

“No! No, I'm sorry, don't be upset,” Wendy said. “Um...” She touched the tips of her fingers together. “Should we ask Natsu and Erza what to do?”

Ryos scrunched up his face. “What's it got to do with them?”

“Is Wendy in danger?” Carla said. Her voice had suddenly gone very hard.

Ryos nodded, and tried to explain. The words came out halting, and then all in a rush, like a dam giving way. How Gajeel'd always thrown attacks at him which just missed, a foot to the left of his head, like he was showing off how easily he could smash Ryos into pieces, like it was a joke. Ryos'd always been measuring himself against Gajeel. It'd always been his goal to take the older Dragon Slayer down one day. Carla's stare darkened as she listened, and Wendy pressed both hands to her mouth.

"'No room for two dragons in this sky'," Ryos quoted sourly. "He says that a lot."

Carla was scowling. "It's far too dangerous! Wendy, this isn't safe!"

“I want to help, though!” Wendy said. “I mean, if Ryos wants me to-” She ducked her head. “Because I'm sorry for leaving, and-”

Carla tugged sharply at the hem of the nightdress Wendy was still wearing, leant in and spoke in an undertone. Ryos couldn't make out what she'd said. Wendy wasn't so good at keeping her voice down, though.

“Because we ran off and Ryos got hurt! And it's my fault anyway, because-” Her voice cracked. “-because I healed Jellal, so I have to make up for it!” She shot Ryos a questioning look. He tipped his head on one side, waiting. “Can – will we be even if I help?”

“Yes,” Ryos said, because that was what would make her help him.

“Okay,” Wendy said, and took a deep breath, and gave Ryos a watery, wavering smile. “Okay, then!”

"Oh, no," Carla said, under her breath. She covered her face with her paw. "Wendy, are you quite sure you have to do this?"

Wendy nodded fervently. Carla's paw slipped down to show her eyes, cool and focused. "Well, I don't mean to watch you two rush in like fools. We need a plan."

* * *

Lucy was coming out of a long tunnel, Taurus close behind her, when Jellal Fernandes abruptly dropped out of the sky. Lucy screamed and dived behind Taurus. Jellal yelped and jumped back. They stared at each other, wide-eyed.

It dawned on Lucy that really, he'd just hopped down from the street overhead.

There was a very long and very uncomfortable silence.

Taurus recognised the mood, for once, and slid Natsu quietly off his shoulder. Happy jumped down and caught him, hovering so Natsu's bare feet hung an inch above the ground. Natsu's eyes opened.

He _didn't_ catch the mood. “What's going on? Who's this guy?”

“...Hello,” Jellal said.

“Hey,” Natsu said. “This guy's Jellal, right?”

Lucy nodded. Her mind had gone completely blank.

Natsu pointed at the psychopath and snapped “Shove off! You're scaring Lucy!”

Jellal took a quick step back. “I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional.” He was mocking them, Lucy decided.

Natsu wasn't smart enough to figure that out. “Good!”

Lucy licked her lips. Her tongue felt like sandpaper. “... surprised you haven't tried to attack him,” she said. Was Natsu demonstrating some vestige of self-preservation instincts? She didn't know what good that would do. She couldn't think of a way out. She couldn't think. All her mind was showing her was strobe-light flashes of Simon's blood on the tower wall.

Jellal's gaze flicked between them. He took another step back, nearly into the wall of the tunnel.

“What? He's Erza's fight,” Natsu said. “I'm not butting in on Erza's fight!” He shuddered. So it _was_ self-preservation instincts, but in exactly the wrong way.

Jellal's forehead creased. “Erza is the girl with red hair,” he said. His voice rose uncertainly at the end, like he was asking a question, but that didn't make any sense.

There was another brief silence.

“...we know,” Lucy said. “We know her.”

“No, I-” Jellal started, and broke off.

Was that a dig at Natsu, for not being in the tower? Was he pretending he didn't know Erza? Was he pretending she wasn't important? Cold anger welled up in the pit of Lucy's stomach. She'd remembered he was evil, she'd just forgotten he was such an _asshole_ about it.

Jellal shivered, and then his mouth set into a hard, determined line. “Why is she angry with me?”

Lucy's mouth dropped open. “What?” she said. “What? You murdered two of her friends!”

Jellal's eyes went wide.

“They were her friends! They were _your_ friends, and you killed them! You tried to kill her!” Lucy said. “You tried to kill me! You tried to kill my teammates! You tried to kill everyone on the planet, you stupid murdering jackass! What, did you forget?” She looked at his devastated face. “...you forgot?” This wasn't right. This was a trick, a trap, something nasty and hilarious (hilarious for him, at any rate.) She backed away. All the colour had drained out of Jellal's face. He pressed both hands flat against the wall behind him like he was having trouble staying on his feet. This wasn't right. “Taurus!” Lucy shouted. “Rampage!”

Taurus let out a bellow, spun his axe over his head and slammed it down. The floor ruptured. Jellal was hurled to the ground.

Natsu sucked in a deep breath. “Fire Dragon's Roar!”

Lucy was pretty sure she saw Jellal throw up a shield before the fire was raging around him and the sudden brilliant light meant she couldn't see much at all, but she wasn't sticking around to make certain. She bolted past him, out of the tunnel, yelling as she ran. “Taurus! Get out of here!” Taurus vanished, and that wasn't exactly what Lucy meant, but it'd do. Happy shot after her, Natsu flapping behind him like a banner in the wind.

The shield stayed up until the fire died down, and then crumbled slowly. Jellal pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his arms. He was still sitting like that when Hoteye found him.

“Jellal!” someone shouted. Jellal lifted his head slowly from his hands. “Get up!”

Jellal obeyed, and looked up. This was another one of the Seis, he guessed. He was a tall man with a whole lot of orange hair, and he was also murderously angry. His face was mottled red and white, his jaw was clenched so tight he could've been trying to grind his teeth flat.

“What did I do to you?” Jellal asked, and the ground turned to liquid under his feet. He pitched forward onto his knees. Hoteye gestured sharply, and the earth rose up and flung Jellal into the wall of the tunnel. He cried out in shock, the moment before the back of his head hit the wall, and then everything flashed white. Suddenly he was sprawled on the ground, dirt in his mouth and dirt oozing between his fingers. His hair slipped into his eyes, and he didn't bother to push it away. He was pretty sure he should be afraid, but all he felt was numb. Like he was watching himself from a long way away, watching himself dangle on a string like a puppet. It was a familiar feeling.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows. “Who are you?”

“I know you lied about Wally,” the Seis said. “And I _will_ have recompense for that!”

Wally? The name came with a surge of guilt, but only because Jellal didn't recognise it at all. He'd killed people. They'd said he killed people. Was Wally one of them?

“What's going on here?” Jellal's head jerked up. Erza's cold stare raked over them both. She greeted the Seis with a brusque “Hoteye.” and then her gaze flicked back to Jellal. He hung his head. “What are you doing?”

“I'm going to kill Jellal,” Hoteye said, with eerie calm.

Erza's glare bored through Jellal. Her fingers drummed on the hilt of her sword. “Don't be an idiot,” she said. “Why isn't it fighting back? It's planning something.” She put a vicious emphasis on the _it_ , so he would know she wasn't going to be fooled again, and he flinched. Erza's heart stuttered. Her hand came up automatically, reaching out for him. She forced it back down and gripped the hilt of her sword instead. Anger made her cheeks flush. Had she not learned anything?

He was definitely up to something, though. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise her if he could take on all the Seis at once, and even if he couldn't, he was more than arrogant enough to try.

“What's the trick?” she said. “Another thought projection?”

Hoteye touched two fingers underneath his eyes. “My Heavenly Eye wouldn't be tricked by something like that.”

“Then what is it?”

Jellal shifted his weight. His voice came out rusty. “I deserve it, don't I?”

Erza looked over at Hoteye.

“He lied to me,” Hoteye said. “He kept my brother Wally a prisoner on his island and told me he'd never heard of him in his life! He kept us apart for eight years!”

“Oh,” Jellal said, and slumped down further against the wall.

“Wally Buchanan?” Erza said, with a frown. “He's a friend of mine, too. He's in prison now, but our friend Millianna is with him too.”

“Millianna,” Hoteye repeated, like he was committing the name to memory. Erza glanced at Jellal. He leant against the tunnel wall, curled up on himself, eyes big and dejected as a kicked puppy's. She balled up her fists.

“What's wrong with you?” she demanded. “This is about Wally! Why are you acting as if you don't remember?”

“I don't,” Jellal said.

“...how could you not remember?” said Erza.

Jellal shrugged helplessly. “I don't remember. I don't remember anything before that cave.” Erza's mouth opened. Was he serious? How could that be right? The Etherion? There wasn't anything, really, about how Etherion affected survivors. Etherion wasn't designed to leave survivors. Jellal's voice wavered. “They said I killed-” He broke off.

“You lost your mind,” Erza said harshly. “You hurt our friends, you destroyed the council, you murdered Sho and Simon and you laughed about it! If you're going to say you don't remember them, I'll put my sword through your heart and make you remember!”

“That would be a good idea,” Hoteye said.

Jellal's jaw set. “Yes. Do it.”

“What,” Erza said flatly.

Jellal pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight. His gaze flickered between them. “You hate me.” He spoke shortly and confidently, like a councillor. “You're going to keep hating me. But that'll destroy you from the inside. If killing me-”

Erza didn't give him the opportunity to finish that sentence. “Do you think I'd let you just die? Do you think you can get away with this by just dying?” She grabbed the front of his coat and shook him until his tiny atrophied brain rattled in his skull. “You're a murderer! If you're really sorry, then you should live and face the consequences!” She threw him back into the wall.

Jellal stared at her like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, and stretched out his hand. “You're-”

“He deserves to die,” Hoteye said. "Payback, yes?”

“If it's justice that you want, you should be trying to hand him over to the Council," Erza said.

“No,” Hoteye said. “We Oracion Seis don't have much interest in the justice system, you see.”

Fairy Tail's respect for the justice system tended towards the sporadic, but this was one of the rare occasions when it worked in their favour.

“Then we have a problem,” Hoteye said. “Yes?”

Erza stopped. She looked at Jellal. Her eyebrows knitted together. “Was this your plan?”

“I don't _have_ a plan,” Jellal answered.

Erza was already turning away. If he thought he could slow her down with one of the Seis, she would show him how wrong he was. “Stay there. And don't even think of doing anything!”

“...wait, what are you doing?” Jellal said, and blanched as Erza drew her sword. “Stop it!”

Hoteye threw the first attack. The ground rolled under Erza's feet; she requipped into the Black Wing Armour and shot into the air, out of range. The Black Wing Armour dissolved into the billowing white skirt and silver wings of the Heaven's Wheel. Two dozen swords materialised, sharp steel blades pointed outwards, and spun in a circle around her. Erza flung out both hands with a shout. The formation broke, and all two dozen swords went flying straight at Hoteye. Another wave of liquified earth rose up to intercept them. For a moment the swords studded the ground like darts in a dartboard, and then the dirt rolled over them and the shining pommels were swallowed up.

“Oh, dear,” Hoteye said. “That wasn't all your swords, was it?” He gestured. “Allow me to return them!” Propelled by blasts of pressurised mud, two of Erza's own swords erupted from the mire and shot straight for her. Erza dropped steeply to avoid the attack. Her boots hit the ground, and the force of the impact drove her calf-deep into the mud. Earth spattered her white skirt. Erza gasped and caught her skirt up in one hand to keep the hem clear of the ground. Hoteye immediately followed up by trying to drown her. Erza sensed the attack coming from the way her swords shifted under their thin skin of earth. The wave rose up before her. Erza's white skirt and gleaming breastplate disappeared, and the Black Wing Armour took their place. Her wings snapped open. Then she spun the two dozen buried swords so that the flats of the blades were against the wave, and held them there.

The wave broke against the swordblades. Erza tore free of the mud, and another pair of swords dropped neatly into her hands. She shot up and over the breaking wave, and then dropped steeply. Both her boots slammed squarely into Hoteye's chest. The impact threw him to the ground, and the flash of her swords made sure he wouldn't be getting up again. Erza didn't slow down. She kicked off Hoteye's prone body, as Jellal gaped at her, and threw herself at him. He let out a startled yelp. Erza grabbed the front of his coat and shoved him back against the tunnel wall.

“What are you-”

She brought the point of the sword in her other hand up to his throat. “I won't allow you to die!” she roared. “Do you think you can be forgiven just by dying? That won't make up for any of the things you've done!” She yanked him forward and then threw him back into the wall, for emphasis. “Live and suffer!”

“...okay,” Jellal said. He breathed out. “If that's what you want.”

“If you're sorry, you should have yourself over to the Council,” Erza said. “They'll know what to do with you.”

“Whatever you want,” Jellal said, both hands raised in surrender.

He was being too agreeable. Erza didn't trust him. She looked into his big, dark, shellshocked eyes and thought for a moment. It had been so much easier, the first time she killed him. She remembered those few minutes when everything had seemed so simple. Now... was she slipping? Was he getting to her? She drew in a deep breath and tightened her grip on her sword.

“What is it?” Jellal said.

Erza stabbed him in the leg. Jellal gasped, stumbled back, reached back for the wall to steady himself, and slipped. He landed on the ground. Blood soaked through his pants.

“I don't trust you,” she told him. “I know you're planning to double-cross me again, but I'm not going to stand here and let you do it. That'll stop you from using Meteor, at least.”

“Meteor?” Jellal said faintly. His face had gone ashen, and his pupils had shrunk to pinpricks. “I... If you think I'm going to betray you, why won't you just kill me?” He pressed both hands over the wound, to slow the bleeding.

“I'm not going to do that. That's exactly what you want me to try,” Erza said. She stepped back, and restored all her swords except the one still in her hand to her armoury. “I'm going to stop this machine, and you'd better not get in my way.” She took another step back, and pointed with the sword. “Get up. We're going. You'll walk ahead of me.”

_ _ _

“Oi! Get out here!” There was part of a door still propped in the doorway of the next house. Gajeel kicked it in. It burst with a satisfying thud and a shower of wood dust. “Are you too scared to fight?”

Still nothing. Gajeel turned back to the empty street with a curse, and saw something flicker in the corner of his vision. His head whipped round. “Hey!” No answer. “Hiding, huh?” Gajeel sniffed the air. Sweat, blood, and dust but also, strangely, flowery soap. That new Dragon Slayer girl. Half a Dragon Slayer, maybe, her and Ryos about made up a proper Dragon Slayer between them, and thinking that he realised Ryos must be with her as well. The brat used all the same shower crap Gajeel did, which made him harder to pick out.

“Ryos!” he yelled. “Other one! The hell you playing at? Get out where I can see you!”

There was only silence. The back of Gajeel's neck prickled. He slapped at it absently, and then suddenly it felt like a hundred knives were slicing into his shoulders and the back of his neck. He shouted, grabbed a fistful of his own tunic and ripped it off as his skin turned into iron scales. Blood dripped from his fingers. Cowardly goddamn sneak attacks! “Get out where I can see you, you wimp!” he yelled. “Ryos, where are you?” He leant forward, fingers twitching, ready to lunge. His head turned slowly, scanning the street. He sniffed.

The darkness twisted under his left boot. Gajeel lurched sideways, arms flailing. A high scream split the night.

“Sky Dragon's Roar!”

The blast hurled Gajeel off his feet and into a wall. It cratered under the impact. Dust and gravel rained down on Gajeel's head. “Son of a-!” Blinking and shaking his head, he scrambled up and finally got a proper look at the dumbasses coming after him. Two small figures, one wearing a loose white dress and floating ten feet off the ground, and the other one barely visible, half-melted into the shadows.

Ryos and the other kid weren't just nearby. They were the ones attacking him. That was Ryos, behind that surprise attack; he'd turned the shadow of Gajeel's own tunic into knives. “What the hell are you doing?” Gajeel demanded. “I got a job to do. You little brats had better back off, if you know what's good for you.”

The little girl twisted the hem of her dress, but Ryos didn't hesitate. He flung out a hand, fingers spread. “Shadow Dragon's Lance: Demon Shards!”

Gajeel laughed. “Your shards can't pierce my skin-” and then he realised, belatedly, that Ryos was aiming for his eyes. He threw himself flat, arm over his eyes, and rolled under the attack. The little daggers peppered the wall behind him. Son of a bitch. That would have stung.

“Fine!” Gajeel barked, catapulting back to his feet. “Iron Dragon's Sword!” His right forearm transformed into a long blade with sharp, serrated edges. “You little brats want to fight me? Let's go!”

  
* * * 

 

The Canes Venatici ranged ahead of Lucy as she hurried through the old city. Scouting was basically hunting, right? Boo searched the houses on the right, patiently and methodically, while Misha tore back and forth on the left side of the street. Happy puffed along in the rear, lugging Natsu.

Seriously? Lucy thought Happy was wasting his time. She was thinking again about running ahead and leaving them - Happy's top speed right then was about three miles an hour - when Boo suddenly howled in pain.

"Boo!" Lucy screamed, dashing forward. "What's the matter?"

Boo's outline warped, his body distorted like she was seeing him through a funhouse mirror, and then he was gone. Misha yelped and vanished in a flash of light.

"Boo! Misha!" Lucy yelled. What happened to them? She looked wildly around the street.

"Oh, stellar spirits," someone said. Lucy looked up. The panda-eyed Seis loomed over them from the next roof. Lucy gasped in horror, mostly because of what he'd just done to her Hounds, but partly because she'd just realised he was wearing tiger-striped pants.

He looked the three of them over. "I'm bored... Are you strong?"

Lucy's brain ticked. 'Oh, stellar spirits'... so he could explode stellar spirits, that was a major problem, but it also meant he couldn't do it to other things, right? And since he hadn't done it to any of them, that included humans, Dragon Slayers and talking cats. Did that mean, though, this guy tried to destroy every living thing he met just to see if it would work?

What a freaking _psycho_.

She'd been quiet too long. "You could ask your guild master," she said. "If he's woken up. The last time we saw him he was unconscious at the bottom of a really big crater."

He started, then sneered. "You're lying. There's no way you defeated my father."

"Your father?" Lucy repeated, astonished. "Brain's your father?" What was this guy's name again? Midnight? "I didn't know dark guilds did bring-your-daughter-to-work day.” That didn't strike a nerve. Okay, yeah, because if he was going to be touchy about his masculinity then he wouldn't be wearing half his weight again in eyeliner. "Maybe that's why he was so easy to beat," Lucy said."Maybe you're just such a disappointment he gave up on life complet-"

"Lucy!" Natsu and Happy screamed. Lucy threw herself backwards.

The split second after Lucy dived back something flashed over her head and then carved a gash as deep as her hand into the stone. A few severed strands of Lucy's hair drifted to the ground. If the other two hadn't warned her, she'd have been cut clean in half.

Midnight hadn't even blinked. Oh, _not_ fair, Lucy thought. Angry people were supposed to get sloppy.

“I'm stronger than Brain is,” Midnight said. “I'll show you how strong I am!”

And that was Lucy's cue to get out of there. She rolled to her feet and bolted. Natsu would cover her escape -

“Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!”

\- yup, Natsu was covering her. Lucy glanced back just in time to see Natsu dive in and swing his blazing fist at Midnight's head. Midnight vanished. Happy and Natsu shot through the space where he had been with identical startled squawks.

“Hey! Where'd he go?” Natsu looked around frantically as Happy spun him in midair. (He could take being spun around like a top by his cat, but not standing still on top of Nirvana?) Lucy couldn't see Midnight, but it was obvious when Natsu spotted him again. “Happy! Over there!” Lucy darted up a flight of outside stairs onto a roof, where she could see, and crouched behind the parapet.

Midnight was standing still, balanced on the parapet of another roof. He yawned pointedly, and covered his mouth with a surprisingly delicate gesture. “I was hoping for something to entertain me until we reached Crocus. Is this the best you can do?”

“Don't underestimate us, you bastard!” Natsu shouted, and threw back his head. His chest expanded as he breathed in. Midnight watched, with a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth. If he was just going to charge straight in... Lucy glanced down at the arc Midnight had gouged out of the street, and stopped dead with sudden realisation. Oh crap. She ducked down lower behind the parapet, throwing hunted looks around the roofs around her.

“Fire Dragon's Roar!” Even crouched behind her little wall, Lucy felt the heat wash over her. She peeked up. Natsu dived in on the tail of the attack, flames bursting from his feet like booster rockets to augment Happy's speed. “Fire Dragon's Claw!” He spun and brought his foot down towards Midnight's head.

Lucy couldn't see entirely what happened, but she heard Natsu's shout of triumph change to a frustrated yell. He shot past Midnight, flames dissipating in his wake. Midnight turned his head to look after him, and the fire twisted back on itself and splashed across Natsu's back. Happy yowled.

“Happy!” Natsu shouted, and they both hit the roof. They skidded across the stone and crashed into the low wall at the opposite edge. Natsu grabbed Happy and curled up tightly around him. Lucy couldn't rely on them to keep Midnight distracted any more, and she didn't know where he really was. That slice taken out of the street – it was all wrong, the angle, the curve of it. She didn't think the spell had been fired from where Midnight had seemed to be standing. She didn't think it could have been fired from where he seemed to be standing now, either. Which meant it was a thought projection, or an illusion, and if he could set up illusions he could be standing right behind her right now.

Lucy saw Midnight turn towards Natsu and Happy, his back to her, and immediately darted back towards the stairs. Halfway down, she realised she was an idiot. Ugh! What had she just been thinking? She reached for her keys.

“Open, Gates of the Chisels! Caeli!”

Caelum A switched to Sword Form as it dropped into Lucy's hands. Caelum One hovered just behind her. Lucy gestured for it to follow her, and then scampered down the street to a point where she could see not-Midnight. He was standing over Natsu and Happy. Natsu was once again totally incapacitated by motion sickness. Lucy rolled her eyes. She kept her face turned to not-Midnight, like she hadn't realised he wasn't real, and, out of the corner of her eye, she followed the path of his slicer spell back up to another, apparently-empty rooftop.

He seemed to have a thing for rooftops. Maybe it was the looking down on people. She muttered the instructions to Caelum One and drew back out of sight.

Out of sight if Midnight was still on that roof, at least. She was gambling an awful lot on that. Caelum One buzzed off. Lucy weighed Caelum A in her hands and took a deep breath. Time to cause a distraction.

“Caelum A, Cannon Form.” Caelum A switched shape. Lucy clambered onto the cannon and up onto a roof, one of the domed ones that looks kind of like the top of an onion. She hauled Caelum A up behind her. “Do you have a shot?” She set one of Caelum's feet on the side of the roof and braced both hands under the other to hold the cannon steady. Okay, not that steady, but it didn't have to be accurate.

Green lights flickered up and down Caelum's barrel. “Good,” Lucy said. “Charge.”

Not-Midnight was still gloating over Natsu and Happy. The stone under them warped into a bizarre, almost-organic shape and then snapped off, spilling Natsu and Happy into the street. Natsu stayed tightly wrapped around Happy.

“Fire,” Lucy said.

The beam slashed through the night. Not-Midnight vanished as it hit. He reappeared a second later, but Lucy was already running. She flung herself off the roof, Caelum A in her arms. “Flight Form!” She caught Caelum A's ring, swung and dropped to the ground. When she reached up, Caelum A dropped into her hand, back in Sword Form. Lucy set off at a run.

She couldn't go far; if Midnight had to move – She hooked a sharp right at the end of the street, heading in his general direction, and scanned the street ahead of her for a glimpse of the panda mage. The voice came from behind her.

“Spiral Pain!”

For a moment, Lucy saw dust spinning around her on the street as the wind picked up, and then it plucked her off her feet and whirled her around like the spin cycle on a washing machine. Caelum A's blade caught her in the head, on her elbow, in the gut; she tried to shout to close the gate, but the vortex sucked the air out of her lungs and she couldn't pull in a breath to speak. Black spots flickered in front of her eyes. The vortex spat her out.

Lucy hit the ground, and Caelum skittered out of her hand. The whirlwind dissipated. Lucy tried to remember why she'd thought staying near Midnight was a good idea, and couldn't.

“Are you dead?” Midnight asked conversationally. “Don't die just yet. We're not going to get to Crocus for a while.” Lucy rolled over and reached for Caelum A. Her fingertips brushed the edge of the blade. “Uh-uh,” Midnight said, one finger raised chidingly, and then pointed the finger at her. “Spiral-”

Caelum One fired.

Lucy gasped. A blast of green light scythed clean across the rooftop she'd thought Midnight was standing on, and broke around an invisible obstacle. The illusion-Midnight flickered out and suddenly Lucy could see the real one, on the roof, twisting sharply to see where the attack was coming from. The beam reflected away from him like water spray. Midnight straightened up again, stuck his thumbs in his pockets and waited. Lucy gaped. He had a shield? He didn't even need to know an attack was coming? That was so not fair!

As soon as the beam died, Midnight half-turned, reached out casually, and tore Caelum One apart. The gate slammed closed.

“Caelum!” Lucy gasped. Damn it! What was she supposed to do? Think!

The shield was a product of his distortion magic, and that didn't seem to work on human bodies. It wouldn't prevent him from being punched in the teeth. That'd be why he didn't go near the Dragon Slayer; punching people in the teeth was pretty much their only tactic.

What was she supposed to do with that, though? Run over there and deck him?

Ugh. No. She was going to get out of there.

Lucy grabbed Caelum A and hauled herself to her feet. Midnight jumped up onto the parapet of his roof and stared down at her. This was a long, straight street. Lucy was totally exposed. She looked around for an alley to duck into. Her knees wobbled under her.

“Your plan didn't work,” he informed her smugly, like he thought maybe she hadn't noticed. “My shield is impenetrable.” He looked her over, and the corner of his mouth curled. “I don't believe that you really beat my father. You're too weak.”

“Well,” Lucy rebutted, “at least I'm not wearing tiger-patterned pants.”

Midnight's eyes widened. He thrust out one hand, palm forwards. “Spiral Ram!”

Lucy hit the ground. She didn't even remember leaving it. She vaguely remembered a truck hitting her. The force of the impact made her skid across the stone and tore the skin from her palms and her knees. “Ow – ow, crap-” She tried to push herself up, leaning on Caelum A. Midnight cocked his head on one side, and Caelum A cracked down the middle. Wires and tubes glowed inside for a moment, and then twisted like Midnight had grabbed a handful of them and yanked. Caelum buckled. The gate snapped shut. Lucy hit the ground again, elbows first.

“Caelum,” she gasped. “Son of a-”

“I'm not a very nice person,” Midnight said. All Lucy's shock and fear crystallised into rage, but she couldn't think of anything to do with it. She was out of ideas. She snarled through her gritted teeth and tried to push herself up again. She couldn't be out of ideas. She'd survived fighting scarier guys than this, she'd eaten eldritch abominations, she couldn't let herself be killed by this douchebag -

An idea struck. She was surprised she'd only just thought of it.

Lucy breathed out and focused on her own magic. She couldn't hear the buzzing, though she believed everyone when they told her it was there; it was like wearing perfume so long you stopped being able to smell it, probably. But she could sense voids in her magic that weren't really voids, where something else bled into her, and now she used them.

Lucy tasted oil welling up in her throat. Wires sang in the back of her head.

* * *

A/N: The plural form of Caelum is Caela. Caeli is the singular genitive, so what Lucy's actually yelling there is 'Gates of the Chisels, open! Of the Chisel!' I guess One and A are just humouring her.

This has been your Latin grammar tip for the day.

I'm guessing there's two chapters left, so PG should top out at a (ridiculous) total of 240,000 words and finish around... uh.... September?


	31. Chapter 31

Gajeel's sword-arm extended in a blur.  
  
“Yah!” Ryos dived out of the way, and the sword ploughed into the wall behind him. Dust and debris showered down. Ryos yanked together two fistfuls of shadows and tried to wrap them around the sword-arm, to hold it in place, but the serrated edges sliced easily through the encroaching darkness as Gajeel drew back his arm.  
  
“Ain't you still too young for this teenaged rebellion crap?” Gajeel taunted, flexing his wrist as his arm transformed back. “You gotta be crazy, thinking you can take me on. You couldn't beat a rug.”  
  
Ryos opened his mouth to protest, but Wendy dropped out of the sky next to him and interrupted. “Don't say that to Ryos! We beat Racer already! He could definitely beat a rug!” She balled up her tiny fists and glared at Gajeel.  
  
“Thanks, Wendy,” Ryos said.  
  
“What?” Gajeel said. “One of the Seis? What? How'd you manage that, you fell down and the guy tripped over you? What were you thinking?”  
  
“I knew you would freak out!” Ryos said. “That's why we have to kill you!”  
  
Gajeel stopped. He stared. “What,” he said. “Kill me.” He raised both hands in disbelief, and then let them fall again. “What.”  
  
“I always admired you,” Ryos said. “Because you were stronger than anyone in Phantom and everyone knew it. But I know what you do to hang onto that! If we don't kill you, you'll kill us!”  
  
It was at that point that Gajeel realised the two of them – and the cat, why not – had completely lost their minds. One of the Seis had a mind-control spell. That was the only explanation.  
  
“'No room for two dragons in this sky', right?” Ryos said.  
  
“I never meant you when I said that!” Gajeel snapped. “I wasn't counting you as a dragon!”  
  
Wendy's cheeks turned bright pink. She huffed, clapped her hands together, and drew them out wide. “Sky Dragon's Void!”  
  
The air pressure dropped like a stone. It felt like Gajeel'd suddenly been teleported to the top of a mountain; he wheezed as the vacuum pulled the air out of his lungs, clutched at his throat with one hand, and lashed out wildly with the other. Ryos dodged Gajeel's flailing metal arm and darted in to attack. “Shadow Dragon's Club!”  
  
The bar hit Gajeel square under the ribs and sent him hurtling into the air. Ryos followed through with another swing that slammed Gajeel into the ground. The paving stones cracked. Ryos drew back, well out of the range of Wendy's Void. Gajeel wheezed, black spots dancing in front of his eyes. Wendy's spell collapsed. She bent over, hands on her knees.  
  
“Wendy!” Carla said.  
  
“Are you okay?” Ryos asked.  
  
Wendy nodded fervently. “I just...” She blinked at Gajeel. “Wow. I only used that to make a vacuum cleaner work before.” She and Ryos and Carla all turned to look at Gajeel.  
  
He was getting up.  
  
“No!” Ryos shouted. “No, stop doing that!” He threw out his arm. “Shadow Dragon's Club!” The attack slammed Gajeel's head into the ground. Gajeel stopped for a second, then got his arms under him and pushed himself up.  
  
“That hurt, goddamnit-”  
  
Ryos stared.  
  
“Are you done?” Gajeel rasped. “Got it out of your system?” He clambered to his feet and stood there, swaying a little. “Because I've got work to do, and I don't see much of a point to this.”  
  
“No!” Ryos said. “No, the point is that you die!”  
  
Ugh. Gajeel was going to have to waste time taking down these two.  
  
He needed to stay the hell away from that vacuum attack, as well. He turned around, and raced back down the street. The two mini-Slayers took off after him, Wendy literally. Gajeel took a left and a right, and skidded to a stop in front of a fallen tree.  
  
It had been left behind when Nirvana'd sloughed off its covering of dirt and dead trees earlier; its roots were up against a roof and its black twisted branches were down in the street. Gajeel scraped his metal fingers against the stone, and sparks flew.  
  
The old dry wood caught. Gajeel spun to face the other two Dragon Slayers, and held out both hands, fingers spread wide. “Come on!”  
  
“Shadow Dragon's Roar!”  
  
“Sky Dragon's Slash!”  
  
Gajeel stamped his boot and a metal spike burst from the sole, anchoring him to the ground. He shuttered his eyes closed and braced for impact. The attacks broke over him, stinging shards of darkness cutting through his metal skin, and the impact of that air spell would have hurled him off his feet without that anchor spike. Red light bloomed even through the shutters. Gajeel opened his eyes.  
  
The wind magic had spurred the flames behind him into blazing life. Gajeel grinned. Firelight glittered on his teeth. “Ready for round two?”  
  
Ryos fell back, away from the light. Gajeel reached out and gripped the base of a burning branch. “You never admired me, kid,” he said. “You were afraid of me.” He wrenched the branch off, and held it easily in one metal hand. “Need me to remind you why?”  
  
“Armour x Vernier,” Wendy said. Glowing light settled around the three of them, and then faded. Support magic? Fine. Gajeel drew in a deep breath.  
  
“Iron Dragon's Roar!”  
  
“Move!” Ryos shouted, and they both blurred out of the way. Wendy and Carla soared up into the air. Ryos dashed into a side alley. Razor-edged shrapnel scoured the street where they'd been standing.  
  
“Sky Dragon's Slash!” Wendy shouted, waving both hands, and fired off two arcs of pressurised air. Gajeel dived and rolled under the first, and caught the second on an upraised forearm. Metal plates buckled, and he skidded backwards.  
  
Wendy squeaked and pressed both hands to her mouth. “Carla!”  
  
“Iron Dragon's Grip!” Gajeel's free arm shot out, trailing metal cables that unfurled around Wendy like a thrown net. Carla dodged and wove between them. The cables tangled around empty air. Gajeel swore, and Wendy and Carla darted into an alleyway, out of sight.  
  
There were too many goddamn alleyways in this city, Gajeel decided, and chased after them. “Stop running, you little punks!” He skids at the entrance of the alley and then realised, belatedly, as a shadow moved in the corner of his vision, that he'd just moved away from the light.  
  
“Shadow Dragon's Club!”  
  
Gajeel slashed down with his flaming branch, disrupting the attack, but what still hit was plenty hard enough. The point hit right under his jaw and flung him into the air. He crashed down in the middle of the blazing treetrunk, splitting it in two.  
  
Wendy and Carla's heads poked out around the corner of the alleyway. “Did that stop him?”  
  
Gajeel growled and rolled back to his feet.  
  
“Oh, no!” Wendy gasped, and clutched at Ryos's hand.  
  
“I suggest a simultaneous attack,” Carla said. “Your Shards, Ryos, and Wendy's Roar?”  
  
“All right!”  
  
“Let's do it,” Ryos said, and flung both hands out wide. “Shadow Dragon's Lance: Demon Shards!”  
  
“Sky Dragon's Roar!”  
  
The shadow fragments and the whirlwind that burst out of Wendy's mouth combined into a storm of razors. Gajeel hunkered down. Spikes burst through the soles of both his boots. His fingers elongated and turned into steel-tipped claws. The spell hit.  
  
It was like getting smashed with a truck, and only the spikes coming out of his boots kept Gajeel rooted to the ground. The wind blew his hair and little shards of darkness into his eyes. Gajeel snarled and dropped to all fours, fingers digging into the stone.  
  
He clawed forward, through the wind, and burst out on the other side of the storm. Wendy shrieked and recoiled, but not fast enough. One of Gajeel's hands closed around both of Wendy's wrists. The other grabbed the front of Ryos's shirt. “Got you!” He slammed Wendy against the wall, ignoring the oof! from the cat trapped behind her, and spiked Ryos into the ground. “Iron Dragon's Restraints!” Metal closed around Wendy's arms, pinning her to the wall, and nailed Ryos to the ground by the throat.  
  
“There! Now stay-”  
  
“Shadow Drive!” Ryos shouted, and dissolved into shadows.  
  
“Oh, come on!” Gajeel demanded. “How long is this going to take?” He lashed out again. “Iron Dragon's Club!”  
  
The bar went clean through Ryos's insubstantial shadow form. He slid away from it like water and responded with his own. “Shadow Dragon's Club!”  
  
Ryos's attack hit Gajeel clean under the chin. Gajeel was tossed back like a doll and hit the street with a crash that broke the paving stones. He scrambled up, rasping curses and holding his neck with one hand.  
  
Ryos was standing in the middle of the street. Because he wasn't moving, he almost seemed to have solidified back into a human shape, but faint smoky tendrils of darkness drifted off him. His eyes were visible as two red points of light.  
  
“Don't get cocky just because you're incorporeal!” Gajeel yelled at him. “You've only got that because-”  
  
Ryos's gaze flicked to Wendy.  
  
 _'-you killed your dragon-'_ Gajeel bit back that response a moment before it left his mouth and finished “- you're one hell of a dragonslayer!”  
  
Ryos blinked a couple of times. “What?”  
  
“And you're going to get better,” Gajeel said, and bared his teeth. “But don't get me wrong, you little shit, because you're not on my level yet!”  
  
Ryos snarled and darted in to take another shot. “Shadow Dragon's-”  
  
“Nope!”  
  
Ryos had to go solid to attack. Gajeel grabbed his leg, spun and slammed Ryos down into the burning tree like a sledgehammer. Ryos was knocked out of shadow form completely. Gajeel grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, hauled him away from the fire and shook him like a rag doll to dislodge all the smouldering pieces. Ryos's brain rattled in his skull.  
  
Gajeel dumped him back on his feet, still holding the back of his neck. Ryos flinched reflexively, one arm coming up to shield his head.  
  
“You're dumb as a plank,” Gajeel informed him. “... but... I was the one supposed to be training that out of you, wasn't I?”  
  
Ryos stared at him for a second. His face screwed up. “Huh?”  
  
Gajeel changed back from his iron scales and looked up at the sky. His face worked. “I ain't been the kind of person anyone would admire-” He smushed his free hand across his face, swallowed, and blinked rapidly. “I ain't been such a great teacher, either.” His face contorted. “I'm- I'm-” He looked like a pug smelling a fart.  
  
“Carla, what's going on?” Wendy said.  
  
“I think he's trying to form a coherent sentence,” Carla said.  
  
Gajeel heard them, scowled, and gave up on verbal communication. He ruffled Ryos's hair. “This is stupid, okay? We're done. You still want to fight me later, we'll do it later. We got Seis to fight now.” He glared down at Ryos. “Okay?”  
  
Ryos looked at Gajeel blankly, like he didn't understand the language Gajeel was speaking, then shook his head furiously and pressed his hand to the side of his head.  
  
“He doesn't seem too bad,” Wendy said quietly. “...I forgot why we were trying to kill him.”  
  
“... um,” Ryos said, “it seemed like a good idea ten minutes ago...”  
  
“We're never going to talk about this again,” Gajeel said. He wrenched the metal bolts around Wendy's arms free, and let her drop to the ground. “It didn't happen.”  
  
“That seems sensible,” Carla admitted.  
  
“...'kay,” Wendy said. Ryos nodded.  
  
There was a brief silence.  
  
“Who came up with that vacuum spell?” Gajeel asked. “Because... damn.”  
  
“Wendy devised it for cleaning, but it was my idea to apply it under the circumstances,” Carla answered. Gajeel added the cat to his mental list of People Who Are More Trouble Than They Look (first place Juvia, second place Lucy.) The back of his neck prickled again. He slapped at it, but the sensation didn't go away, and after a moment he realised it wasn't on the back of his neck. It felt like something crawling down the back of his throat.  
  
Carla looked around. “Something's wrong.” She shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you feel that?” It was a distant shriek, the sound of a nail dragging on a chalkboard infinitely drawn-out; it bypassed the ears and hummed in their bones like a trapped insect.  
  
“It's Ashley,” Gajeel said, at the same moment as Ryos said “Lucy!” They traded looks. “Come on!”  
  
The four of them raced straight towards the source.

* * *

Midnight took a step back on reflex, but then laughed. “Are you trying to frighten me? Me?” He spread his hands out wide. Viscous black energy seeped through his skin. “I'll teach you the true meaning of fear!” The black energy shrouded him entirely, then distorted and bulged outwards into the shape of an immense monster. Midnight leapt down from the roof, landing with a thud that spread cracks across the paving stones, and straightened up to to his full twenty-foot height. His mouth split his face open from ear to ear. “This is the peak of my reflection magic!” His laughter bounced off the walls around,  
  
He still had his fluffy black-and-white hair, Lucy noticed, with distant surprise. She was having trouble thinking. The ground seemed to undulate under her feet. Her skin felt too small for her bones. Midnight punched a claw clean through her stomach.  
  
Lucy looked down in surprise. When did that happen? She ran her fingertips across the claw; it was strangely smooth and featureless, like plastic. She pushed her fingers into the wound and pulled it wider. Oil oozed out of the wound and slid through Lucy's fingers.  
  
“What are you- don't die on me yet,” Midnight said. “I'm only getting started!”  
  
Lucy pressed her filthy hands against the claw, and the oil ate into it like acid. Within seconds, the claw was gone, and the oil just kept spreading up towards the monster's hand. Lucy had a vague feeling that this wasn't really happening, but her mind couldn't deal with what was really happening.  
  
As the oil chewed into the monster's fingers, it flickered and disappeared. The real Midnight's face twisted in irritation. “How did you do that?”  
  
Lucy tried to speak. Her throat worked and her tongue squirmed in her mouth. She made an inarticulate noise, and finally managed to pull it all together.  
  
“You're not scary,” she said. Spittle ran from the corner of her mouth. She jumped a little, and covered the lower half of her face with her hand in embarrassment. “You're nothing. I would feel sorry for you if you deserved pity.”  
  
“You don't think I'm scary?” Midnight tilted his head and gave her a brittle smile. “Whatever you're trying now-” He pressed both hands over his ears and swallowed. “- it doesn't bother me. I've already beaten you and your boyfriend. ”  
  
“Natsu is not my boyfriend!” Lucy said. Seriously, could she not stand next to a guy without people thinking she was dating him?  
  
Midnight was still talking. “I'm the strongest mage in the Oracion Seis. There's nothing you can do that'll frighten me!” He clutched at his head, fingers tangled in his own hair. “What are you doing?”  
  
A vice was closing around Lucy's head; she opened her mouth and a laugh spilled out. “I'm not trying to frighten you. I only want you to understand.”  
  
“Shut up!” Midnight lashed out with one hand and fired off another distortion slicer. It hit Lucy clean under the ribs and knocked her back. Oil spattered the street and ran down the front of her shirt. Midnight laughed. The oil steamed slightly, and ate into her skin. Lucy climbed back to her feet and tried to swipe it away. Her fingertips burned.  
  
She had a vague feeling that she ought to be more disturbed. “Hey. I liked this top,” she said, to try it out. Nope. Never mind.  
  
“You're trying to weaken my magic,” Midnight said.  
  
“Is that happening? I don't know," Lucy said.  
  
“It won't make any difference,” Midnight told her, and pasted his smirk back onto his face. “You won't last much longer with an injury like that. I'm still the strongest-”  
  
“You keep saying that,” Lucy said. “You should know that only makes it worse.”  
  
Midnight broke off mid-sentence. “...what?”  
  
“It makes it worse, that you've got power,” Lucy said, and took a step forward. “Because you're just a puppet.” Another step forward. “It makes it worse, that you did this to yourself, because you were stupid enough to think Brain might ever value you as more than a weapon.”  
  
Midnight flinched. Lucy kept moving forward.  
  
“You started out as a slave and you're still a slave, only this time you're too stupid to realise it because he tells everyone you're his son,” she said. Her laugh sawed at her throat. “How desperate do you have to be?” She didn't know where the words were coming from, but the look on Midnight's face was hilarious. “Newsflash, panda eyes!” She was nearly in range now. “Your father doesn't care about you. Your guild master doesn't care about you. And your guild master is your father, so you're double fucked!”  
  
Midnight stumbled back. It didn't matter. Lucy was still close enough to kick him square in the groin. Midnight doubled over. Lucy slammed her clasped hands into the side of his head. He hit the ground, rolled over and pressed one hand flat against the ground. It rippled and twisted, like Lucy was standing on the deck of a ship, but not much. Lucy shifted her weight and stayed standing.  
  
“Is that all you've got?” she said. “You're embarrassing yourself. They should have left you on the island.”  
  
“What – what the hell are you-”  
  
Lucy considered that. “I'm not a nice person,” she said, and booted him in the gut. Midnight folded up, hands pressed over his ears.  
  
He wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while, Lucy decided.

* * *

At the bottom of his crater, Zero's eyes opened.

* * *

Lucy took a few steps away from Midnight's prone form and reached for her keys.  
  
“Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!”  
  
Loke materialised with his usual dramatic declaration of love. “Good evening! It's your prince, Lo-” He stopped, and choked, and covered his mouth, and stared at Lucy with wide horrified eyes. “Lucy?” She smiled. He recoiled. “What's wrong? You're hurt!” He looked around and saw Natsu and Happy and Midnight, all on the ground. “What's the matter?”  
  
“Nothing. Everything's fine,” Lucy said. Her fingers itched. The skin bulged out like her bones were trying to uncurl inside her skin. She pointed at Midnight. “Can you kill this guy for me?”  
  
“What?” said Loke. “He's already down. It's not necessary.” Midnight's eyes were open, but vacant. He might have blacked out.  
  
“He's not injured. He could get up. That'd be a pain,” Lucy said. She moved closer to Loke. His gaze flicked down. He measured the shrinking distance between them, and edged backwards. “Lucy, you're bleeding, you need help,” he said. “You're not thinking straight.” He hesitated, then tried weakly “...snap out of it.”  
  
“I'm the only person thinking straight!” Lucy said. “He might get up again. I don't want him to. You don't want him to, because he's a psycho. I can't kill him myself, so I'm asking you to do it!” Loke took another step back. Lucy stopped. She let her hands fall to her sides. “I thought you were my loyal lion,” she said.  
  
“I am,” Loke said. “And I'll do anything you ask me to. So don't ask me to do this.”  
  
Lucy scowled. “I should have expected this, right? I knew you weren't really all that loyal from the beginning.”  
  
Loke flinched, but his voice was perfectly level when he said, “This isn't you. Tell me what happened.” He took a few careful steps backwards. Lucy followed him, without noticing that this drew her further away from Midnight.  
  
“Nothing's happened. Everything is fine,” she said. She gnawed on her fingers, trying to bite through to the bone, and said, a little muffled, “I figured out something new, is all.” And she was trying to be practical and certain Fairies didn't understand what that word meant. That was a problem.  
  
“You're asking me to do something you'll regret,” Loke said.  
  
Lucy took her fingers out of her mouth and said, “No, I don't think I will.”  
  
“Then why don't you do it yourself?” Loke challenged her. “You said you couldn't do it yourself. Why not?”  
  
“I'm not strong and I'm not armed,” Lucy said. She looked around. “Actually, though, I could garrote him with my bootlaces. That'd work.”  
  
“No. Okay, no, that was a stupid question, I shouldn't have asked,” Loke said. “Lucy, stop. I'm not going to let you do that.”  
  
Lucy scowled. “You're supposed to be my partner, not my nanny!”  
  
“It's because I'm your partner that I'm not letting you do this!” Loke folded his arms. His eyes had gone cold behind his sunglasses. “You said it yourself to Freed. If you care about someone, sometimes you have to stop them from doing stupid things. And right now, anything you do except finding a healer is a stupid thing.”  
  
“You don't understand!” Lucy snapped. She stuck her fingers back in her mouth and bit down hard.  
  
“Lucy,” Loke said, “are you trying to eat your own hands?”  
  
Lucy yanked her fingers out of her mouth. “Don't change the subject!” She really didn't like how he was staring at her. Like he was torn between pulling her into a hug and never going anywhere near her again. So she spun on her heel and flounced away.  
  
“Lucy!” Loke shouted. He scooped up Natsu and Happy, and pursued her. He was still talking. Lucy pressed her hands over her ears, but Loke just yelled louder. “You're not acting like yourself, and you're-”  
  
“Gate of the Lion, close!” Lucy slammed his gate shut before he could get to the end of that sentence. Natsu and Happy went thump on the ground.  
  
Loke rematerialised in front of her. Lucy started.  
  
“You're injured. You need to let me help you.”  
  
“I need you to go away!” Lucy snapped, and tried to force his gate closed again. Loke didn't blink. He'd used his own power to come through.  
  
Dammit.  
  
“This isn't you, Lucy! Something's wrong with you. You need to fight it!”  
  
“There's nothing wrong with me!”  
  
“You just asked me to kill someone when they were already down! That's not you! The Lucy I know is kind, and gentle-”  
  
“Um, to you guys,” Lucy said. “Do you want to find Brain and tell him how kind and gentle I am?”  
  
“What's going on?” Gajeel demanded. “What do you mean, she's not her? Don't say Ashley's lost her marbles as well.”  
  
Loke and Lucy both jumped and looked around. Gajeel folded his arms and glared at them. He'd parked himself squarely in front of the two kids and the cat. They peered out around him.  
  
Loke clearly wasn't happy to see Gajeel, probably because of that time Gajeel used him as a football, but after a moment's thought he decided Gajeel was a step up from Lucy right now.  
  
“There's something very wrong,” Loke said.  
  
“No, there isn't,” said Lucy.  
  
“She summoned me to ask me to kill someone who was already down,” Loke said.  
  
“He wasn't injured enough to stay down. I wanted him to stay down,” Lucy said.  
  
“Right,” Gajeel said. “So what's the problem?”  
  
Loke stared at him. There was a momentary pause.  
  
“See?” Lucy said, feeling vindicated.  
  
“That doesn't sound like Lucy, though. I think that's what he means,” Ryos said. “I don't think she's killed anyone before. And... Lucy, you know you asked us to tell you if the chthonian effect on your magic got any stronger?”  
  
Lucy blinked at him.  
  
“It has. By a lot.”  
  
“Oh,” Lucy said. “I figured. It's not a problem.”  
  
“You're covered in blood,” Loke said.  
  
Lucy looked down. Thick black oil was still oozing from the gash across her midsection. It didn't look as if it was letting up. Where drops landed on her bare legs, they left tiny burned circles behind.  
  
“It's fine. It doesn't hurt,” she said.  
  
“Um-” Wendy peeked out from behind Gajeel. “That could just be shock. I can help-”  
  
“I don't need help!” Lucy said. “I'm handling it. It's handled.” She nodded, for emphasis, and the feeling of her hair brushing her shoulders like spiderlegs made her jump. She twisted her fingers through her hair and started to pull out the blonde threads.  
  
“What's handled?” Lucy whipped around. Erza was standing behind her. Her face was white, her mouth was pinched and she had a sword in her hands. “I don't like this unpleasant atmosphere.” Lucy was surrounded now; Loke behind her, Gajeel and Erza blocking the other ways out.  
  
“Something's wrong with Lucy,” Loke said.  
  
“No there isn't!”  
  
“She tried to get me to murder someone who was already unconscious and a minute ago I think she was trying to eat her own hands.”  
  
Lucy spun to face Loke, fuming. “I was being practical! Do you need that in shorter words? Smart! I was being smart! And I don't feel this bad atmosphere you keep talking about, and-”  
  
Loke started. Lucy saw a flash of movement reflected in his sunglasses, and dived sideways. Erza's cricket bat whistled through the space right where her head had been. Lucy scrabbled back away from it and jumped to her feet. “What are you doing?”  
  
Erza shouldered her bat. “Stay still so I can knock you out.”  
  
“Why is everyone ganging up on me?” Lucy demanded, tearing out fistfuls of her hair by the roots. Her eyes narrowed. “You think something's wrong with me? Do you expect me to trust your judgement on that? It's not like you're any good at judging people, Erza! You think people are your friends while they're trying to kill you and resurrect Zeref, and we all know how that turned out!” She made a furious gesture. “If it hasn't got a hilt and a pointy end, you haven't got a clue!”  
  
Erza's fingers opened and closed on the handle of her bat, like it was taking all her effort not to split Lucy's skull open. “You're insane, and I'm not listening to you,” she said flatly, but Lucy was already wheeling on Loke. “You just want something to be wrong with me so you can swoop in and fix it! Like that'll make up for letting Karen get herself killed!”  
  
Loke bared his teeth. “I exist to help you. That doesn't mean I'm wrong.”  
  
Lucy turned her head, looking for an easier target. “Ryos – actually, there's no point saying anything to you, is there? You're just parroting Gajeel's opinions.” Ryos wrapped his arms around himself and took a step back.  
  
“That's not nice!” Wendy's voice had gone high and thin. “Don't say that about Ryos!”  
  
Lucy looked at her. “...who are you again?” she said, and yanked out another fistful of her own hair. Her scalp stung. She dug her nails into it. “Seriously, what are you here for? Do you have a function?”  
  
Wendy blinked, and then lifted her chin. Angry tears glittered in her eyes. “I'm-”  
  
“Don't you dare insult Wendy!” Carla yelled, and attacked. Lucy snatched the cat out of the air with her free hand. Oil bubbled out of her skin.  
  
“Lucy!” Loke shouted, horrorstruck. “Don't-”  
  
“Carla!” Wendy shrieked, charging forward, but a louder scream drowned them both out.  
  
“LUCY!”  
  
Lucy's head snapped around.  
  
“Did her head just turn – oh, gross,” Gajeel said.  
  
“LUCY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO YOUR HAIR?”  
  
Lucy started. She looked down. One yowling, scratching cat – she opened her hand and the cat dropped to the ground – and strands of long, fair hair wound around her raw and bleeding fingers. She screamed. “My hair!”  
  
Juvia grabbed her in a bearhug and pinned her arms to her sides. “Stop it, Lucy! Stop whatever it is you're doing!”  
  
“I'm not doing anything!” Lucy yelled. “I'm not-”  
  
“Look at yourself!”  
  
Lucy looked, and screamed.  
  
The empty fissures in her own magic had spread wider – it'd eaten into her just like it ate into Midnight's monster, quietly, where she couldn't see it happening – and – Lucy choked on her own breath. There was something alive inside the gaps in her magic. She could feel it sliding out, the slow drag of – Lucy thought, for a moment, that the holes were openings to the place outside, that there was a gate forming inside her magic, but it was worse. There was something growing inside her.  
  
Lucy clutched at Juvia's arm and kept screaming. She couldn't stop.  
  
“Lucy!” Juvia grabbed at her head. Lucy tried to tear her hands off. “Lucy, listen to me! Look at me!” Lucy tried to focus on Juvia's face. Her vision was blurring. She couldn't breathe; she was panting for air but still felt like she couldn't fill her lungs. “Listen to me! You have to seal the gaps over.”  
  
What? How? “I can't,” Lucy gasped.  
  
“Yes, you can! I know you can!” Juvia insisted. Lucy screwed her eyes shut and tried, she really tried, but it was like touching hot metal. Everything in her recoiled away from the empty spaces. Tears welled up in her eyes.  
  
“I can't-”  
  
Loke's hands folded over Juvia's. He said, “Lucy, let me try.”  
  
Lucy screwed her eyes shut and let him.  
  
“Don't push it,” he said. “You're a summoner. That's not how you work. Watch this-” He... moved ahead, somehow, cleared the way, and in the wake of whatever he'd done Lucy's magic rolled in to fill the gaps. The fissures closed up. She felt stretched drumskin-thin, and unpleasantly like she'd just been to the dentist, but the gaps were sealed over.  
  
“There you go,” the Lion said. “Lucy?”  
  
Lucy drew in a breath to answer, and gasped as pain flared across her chest. There was a broad gash across her ribcage, right through the fabric. Her blouse was sticky with blood. “Ow! Crap!” She fell backwards. Loke caught her and lowered her to the ground. Juvia knelt down at her side.  
  
“Lucy! Are you all right?”  
  
“I can help!” Wendy said, but Erza held out an arm to block her as she moved forward.  
  
“Explain. Now.”  
  
“... I screwed up,” Lucy said.  
  
“This is that ate-a-chthonian thing, right?” Gray said. “Figured that might end badly. What happened?”  
  
“I don't know,” Lucy said. She tried to sit up further, gasped and pressed her arm to the gash across her ribs. Loke and Juvia immediately reached out to take her weight.  
  
Wendy sidestepped Erza and came trotting over. “Can I help?” Without really waiting for an answer, she summoned up some blue glowing light and pressed both hands over Lucy's arm. Lucy let out a long breath and her head lolled back, at just the right angle to give her an excellent view up Loke's nose.  
  
“Sorry,” she said. “I'm sorry I said-”  
  
“Forget about it,” said Loke. “What happened?”  
  
“Uh-” It took Lucy a second to get her muddled thoughts in order. “After Natsu and I split off, we found Cobra and managed to beat him, but then Brain took us both out with a sneak attack. The next thing I knew, we were in this big room under the central tower – what's left of it – with, um, a strobe light?”  
  
Wendy put her hand on the back of Lucy's head. Lucy obediently dropped her forehead to her knees, and Wendy got to work mending the tears across her scalp.  
  
“A strobe light?” Juvia prompted.  
  
“Yeah. Everything kept flashing between black and white. Brain tried to convince us both to join the Oracion Seis, and I said yes-”  
  
“What?” Erza said.  
  
“Only so he'd turn his back on me,” Lucy said, “that doesn't count.” Wendy moved on to her hands. Lucy kept her forehead pressed against her knees. “So as soon as we got the chance Scorpio shot him in the back and then once he was down, we went looking for the rest of you and ran into Jellal and Midnight instead-” She looked up. “Jellal told us he didn't remember anything. Like if Etherion gave him amnesia or something.”  
  
“I know,” Erza said. “That's not a problem.”  
  
So she'd already run into Jellal, and probably cut him into little pieces. Good.  
  
“Why did Brain think you'd agree to join the Seis?” said Gray.  
  
Lucy thought about it. “Crap,” she said. “That's what the strobe light – uh, Nirvana – does! It doesn't do anything to real light or darkness, it just affects people's personalities!”  
  
There was a sudden ohhhhh of comprehension from Gajeel, Ryos, Wendy and Carla. Everybody looked at them except Lucy. Her thoughts rushed on. “So if Nirvana gets to fire at Crocus like they mean to -”  
  
“... it'd be pretty bad,” Gray said, which was a major understatement.  
  
Lucy could see how it had been meant to work. Maybe just switching people from good to evil was a simplistic way of putting it, maybe it just brought out things that had been suppressed, or reduced people's inhibitions. If you fired it at a dark guild's headquarters, maybe they'd end up singing songs around a campfire. If it was aimed at a city, though, full of just regular people... well, everybody had bad sides. Nirvana'd move on and maybe it'd leave a civil war, or maybe it'd leave just a lot of people like Lucy who hadn't been all that nice to start with and were suddenly worse.  
  
She hadn't even noticed. She hadn't felt any different. She'd just been trying to be practical. She'd only been trying to fix things. She felt a sudden, unexpected sympathy for Laxus.  
  
Wendy and Ryos were trading embarrassed looks over Lucy's head, and Wendy put Lucy's hand down. “That'll do for now, I think – um, what's the matter with him?” Lucy lifted her head to see where Wendy was pointing.  
  
“Natsu? There's nothing wrong with him except... oh, actually, there's a lot wrong with him, but the biggest problem right now is motion sickness,” Lucy said.  
  
“Motion sickness?” Wendy repeated. “I know a spell that can help with that!” Oh. That was convenient. Wendy generated a sphere of softly-glowing blue energy between her hands and then laid both palms on the sides of Natsu's head, so the energy sank into his skull.  
  
Natsu's eyes popped open. “Hey!” He bounced up like a rubber ball. “What happened? I feel great!” He spun around with his arms flung out wide. “This is so cool! Happy, look, I'm on a vehicle! Let's go ride a train! And a boat, and a rollercoaster, and a rollercoaster on a boat!”  
  
“What?” said Lucy. Everyone else was ignoring Natsu.  
  
“If Ashley's done,” Gray said, “we've got bigger trouble. Nirvana's nearly at the edge of the forest.”  
  
“It's heading for Crocus,” Lucy volunteered.  
  
“If we can't stop it, it won't need to get to Crocus. It'll crush half the country just by walking over it.”  
  
“Why couldn't you and Juvia cripple it?”  
  
“There wasn't time. Not with just the two of us,” Juvia said.  
  
Gray looked a little miffed at the 'couldn't', but nodded. “It'll take all of us.”  
  
“Then we'd better get on with it,” Erza said.  
  
Natsu had been running in circles around them, pretending to be an airplane, with Happy riding on his shoulders, but that made him stop. “Why are we stopping Nirvana?”  
  
“Because it's going to trample half the country,” Erza said.  
  
“So? That'd be cool!”  
  
“... oh, crap,” Lucy said. “Nirvana got him, too.”  
  
“If Nirvana keeps going, it'll turn all the other guilds dark too, right?”  
  
“Yeah, that's why we're stopping it,” said Gray.  
  
“But then we can all fight!” Natsu flailed excitedly. “It'd be like a massive tournament! All the guilds fighting all the other guilds to prove that Fairy Tail's the best! Like Laxus's Fighting Festival, only bigger and better!”  
  
“Natsu, you're turning evil,” Lucy said. “Stop it.”  
  
“I'm not evil! It'd be fun!” Natsu said. “Happy, it'd be fun, right?”  
  
“Oh! Natsu! I know what would be fun!” Happy chirped. “Destroying the world!”  
  
Natsu whooped and punched the air. “Good idea, Happy!”  
  
Lucy stared at them, open-mouthed. Gray rolled his eyes.  
  
“Natsu,” Erza said. “Come here.” She beckoned. Natsu obliged. Erza requipped a rolled-up newspaper and thwacked him into the nearest wall.  
  
There was a crash, and a cloud of dust.  
  
“Snap out of it!” Erza yelled at the wreckage. A few long seconds ticked by before Natsu craned his head up and stared wide-eyed at Erza. “We are stopping Nirvana. There will be no discussion.”  
  
“...yessir,” said Natsu.  
  
Erza turned her stare on Happy. He clearly also decided that destroying the world would be a bad career move.  
  
“Besides,” Gray said, “if we let something trample half the country and turn everyone into dicks and the Council makes the old man pay for the damage, he's gonna be pissed. Remember after Galuna Island?”  
  
“Oh, yeah!”  
  
Okay. Natsu was fixed. That was easy. That was so easy Lucy was even a little resentful. Maybe the issue was that Nirvana worked on suppressed feelings, and Natsu never suppressed a thing in his life.  
  
“How are we going to stop Nirvana?” Gray said.  
  
“When we broke off one of its legs, it regenerated,” Juvia said. “We were able to force it to jettison another, but at considerable effort.”  
  
Lucy screwed up her face. “How did it grow back a leg? It's a machine, isn't it?”  
  
“Ideal-state restoration matrix,” Jellal said. “The power is diverted from the other limbs, and the raw materials come from the underbelly of the city itself.”  
  
Everyone spontaneously realised Jellal was there.  
  
They stared at him. He'd been keeping well back, leaning against a wall, ghastly white and trembling. Lucy let out a belated squawk and jumped back to hide behind Loke. Wendy gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.  
  
“What's wrong with him? He's hurt!”  
  
“What isn't wrong with him might be a shorter list,” Gray said. He'd dropped into a combat stance, hands drawn back, fist against his other palm. Natsu ignited both his fists and started forward.  
  
“I stabbed him in the leg,” said Erza. “It doesn't need fixing. Stop, Natsu.” Natsu stopped, with a low growl.  
  
“You think that'll cover it?” Lucy asked. It came out a lot more incredulous than she meant it to.  
  
“No,” Erza said, “I think I can cover it.”  
  
Juvia wasn't reassured. She planted herself squarely between Lucy and Loke and Jellal. Gajeel had grabbed Ryos and Wendy by the neck and hauled them back when Wendy tried to move forward.  
  
“He painted his last buddy's head all over the wall. Don't be an idiot,” Gajeel growled. Wendy gasped, and looked at the psycho with great big pining eyes. That was sad, how they'd messed with her head.  
  
The tension was palpable. Everyone was poised for a fight. The flames around Natsu's fists crackled. Juvia's gaze flicked between Erza and Jellal.  
  
Lucy stayed behind Loke, scared to make any sudden movements. Jellal looked intimidated, but then Jellal was a liar and and psychopath. She remembered the Tower - he'd blown off Simon's head in a second and gone through Gajeel and Gray and Juvia like they weren't even there, he was unbelievably fast – and then she thought, okay. His fighting style was based around speed; confused, recently-comatose and with a leg injury, with all of them already watching him... it'd be a lot more even. She noticed for the first time that Erza had moved around the circle so that she could keep all of them in her field of view at once.  
  
Gray broke the tension. He straightened up a little, and folded his arms. Clearly, he agreed that Erza should be the one deciding where to stab Jellal, even if he didn't agree with what she'd decided. “Explain how it works, then.”  
  
Jellal drew in a shuddering breath. “It's a decentralised system which draws power in through the legs themselves. There's a lacrima set at the top of each leg which controls the energy flow, and if one leg is damaged, the remaining lacrima divert power to repair it. If all the lacrima except one are destroyed – it'd take longer, but the system would still be able to restore itself.” A faint crease appeared between his eyebrows. “The weak point of the system is that the energy to perform the restoration needs to be channelled through the lacrima at the limb's connection point. If the lacrima is damaged, it can be restored. If it's missing entirely, though, there's nothing there to work with.”  
  
“I don't understand,” Juvia said.  
  
Jellal reduced the explanation to words small children would know. “If one of the rocks is broken the other rocks fix it and if all the rocks are broken except one, the last rock can fix all the other rocks.”  
  
“Thank you,” Juvia said politely, “but what Juvia meant is that she doesn't understand why Jellal Fernandes is here and speaking and conscious.”  
  
Lucy agreed.  
  
“Yeah, especially with the speaking,” Gajeel said.  
  
Wendy looked heartbroken.  
  
“Erza says it's fine,” Natsu said, “so it's fine.”  
  
Gray nodded agreement. “You handle your psycho, Erza'll handle hers.”  
  
“Gajeel's not a – oh. You meant me, didn't you,” Lucy said.  
  
“Lucy wasn't herself,” Loke objected instantly. “But... Erza wouldn't say that she can handle it if she couldn't.” The three Fairy boys exchanged nods to the effect that genocidal maniacs were okay if Erza said they were okay.  
  
The ex-Phantom gang moved to stand further away from them.  
  
“Destroying the lacrima simultaneously would be quickest, but we don't have a way to synchronise our attacks,” Erza said. “So it'll be easiest if we just blow off all of Nirvana's legs entirely, along with the building containing their lacrima.”  
  
“Sorry, easiest?” Lucy said, while everyone except her, Ryos and Wendy nodded like that was entirely reasonable.  
  
Erza counted on her fingers. “There's six legs remaining. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Juvia, Gajeel and myself. I'll keep watch on Jellal. I'll need a map-” She glanced up. Jellal was already drawing her one, in glowing white lines in the air. “Fine. I'll take that one.” She pointed to the one furthest from their main group. Natsu picked the one next to it, moving clockwise, and then Gray and Juvia and Gajeel. Lucy took the last one left.  
  
“Juvia is not certain Lucy should be alone,” Juvia said.  
  
“She won't be,” Loke said, and slid a warm reassuring hand around her waist.  
  
“I'll be okay,” Lucy promised, and glanced at Loke. “Can you empower Taurus's Rampage with Regulus? That might work.”  
  
Loke clasped both her hands in his. “Yes,” he said earnestly. “I can make the earth move for you.”  
  
“I... will... take that as a yes,” Lucy said. “See you later, guys. I'll try to signal, but if I can't, I'll... sit around and wait for you to sniff me out, Gajeel.”  
  
Erza drew her sword, and gestured for Jellal to start walking.  
  
“Hey, Gray! First one to take out their lacrima wins!” said Natsu. Lucy nodded to her team, took Loke's hand and headed out. Taking out Nirvana was the priority. Worrying about Jellal would have to come after.  
  
Loke tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow, looked up at the stars and smiled. “This is nice, isn't it?”  
  
“You think so?”  
  
“Walking in the moonlight with a beautiful girl – what could be better?”  
  
Lucy thought about it. “A beautiful girl who doesn't know you're ridiculous?”  
  
Loke chuckled.  
  
“I am sorry about... saying that. About Lilica,” Lucy said.  
  
“You said already,” said Loke. “That's okay. It hurt, but it wasn't really you.”  
  
Lucy kicked a pebble, instead of explaining that no she really wasn't a nice person. “I wouldn't blame you for holding it against me.”  
  
Loke slung his arm around her waist and grinned. “If I had permission to hold anything against you, I wouldn't waste it on-”  
  
Lucy put her palm on his face and shoved him away, laughing.

* * *

Natsu ran, Happy bouncing on his shoulders. The pavement shifted under his feet as Nirvana moved, but not in a bad way, like in a bouncy-castle way. It was awesome. Wendy was awesome.  
  
“Happy!” He pulled Happy off his shoulder and tossed him up into the air like a football. “Race you!”  
  
Happy's wings burst open, and he took off like a rocket. A gust of wind rolled down the street in his wake. Natsu stumbled mid-stride, and stopped, as the shift in air currents threw a new scent into his face. Hairspray and iron oxides and panic.  
  
He wheeled around and bolted back. “Happy, come on!”  
  
“Natsu? Natsu!” Happy chased after him.  
  
Natsu skidded to a stop in front of Ryos and Wendy and demanded “Which way did Lucy go?”  
  
“Why?” Ryos said, but Wendy pointed.  
  
“All right! You two can go get my lacrima.”  
  
“What?” said Wendy.  
  
“What,” said Ryos, flatly. “Why?”  
  
“I don't think we-” Wendy started.  
  
Natsu grabbed both their hands and grinned. “Don't worry, you can do it! Destroying things is easy! It's the easiest thing in the world!”  
  
“But-” Wendy started. Natsu didn't wait around for the end of that sentence before he chased after Lucy. He wasn't the only one.

* * *

Lucy was going to go out on a limb and say that the massive domed building right ahead of them was the lacrima hall. It was the only place around with lights on, for one. A faint golden glow spilled out through the doorway and the small, high windows. Lucy leant against Loke's side and sorted through her keyring. The solidity of the ground under her feet was disconcerting, suddenly, now that she had to try to dig through it. Maybe Virgo could help, actually... Lucy'd better get it right first time, though. She didn't think she had the power left to open more than one more golden gate. Plus, she hadn't even asked Virgo if she wanted to contract. “Have you ever done anything like this before?”  
  
Loke shook his head.  
  
“Maybe we should go in and check it out,” Lucy said. “There might be something in there we can use.”  
  
When they went in, though, the hall turned out to be almost empty. There was just the lacrima, standing on a podium in the centre of a massive bowl with a walkway all around it. Lucy couldn't even see any controls. She walked around it. The lacrima exhibited perfect rotational symmetry, but nothing useful. “What do you think?”  
  
Loke didn't answer. Lucy looked up. “Loke? - Loke!” She grabbed at him frantically, and his bones seemed to twist under her hands. “Loke!”  
  
“Lucy-” he gasped, and disappeared. Lucy's fists closed on empty air. She looked past them. Her heart turned over. Midnight was standing in the exit.  
  
Oh God dammit. She knew he was going to get back up.  
  
Her hands trembled. She dropped them slowly to her sides, and wiped her palms on her skirt.  
  
“Hi-iiii,” she said. She had to stall for time. She was going to need one hell of a lot of time.  
  
“So, you've found a way to stop Nirvana,” Midnight said, with a smile. “How clever of you. It's too late now, though. My father's other self is loose.”  
  
“... his other self?” Lucy said faintly. She felt a surge of irritation as Midnight's smile widened – him and his perfect eyeliner and his perfect lipstick, her dirty and bloodstained and with the worst hair of her life – and then realised that that couldn't be right. Not unless he'd taken a time out to reapply his makeup and launder his clothes. She was looking at another illusion.  
  
She didn't blink. She kept her eyes on the fake.  
  
“Why is it too late?” She moved slowly, around the colonnade, walking back towards the fake Midnight. It took a few seconds for the illusion to turn its head to follow her. Wherever the real Midnight was, he was still rattled. She hoped he was still rattled. She hoped he would still rather gloat than just blast her.  
  
Deep down, she was expecting another one of those distortion slicers across her back at any second. Her skin prickled, waiting for it. Where was the real one?  
  
“Zero isn't interested in Nirvana, but he won't allow your friends to continue existing,” Midnight said.  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lucy said. She needed to get back outside. Outside, she'd have a better shot at running, or signalling for help. But the fake Midnight was blocking the only way out. She was trapped.  
  
“I won't let you destroy Nirvana,” Midnight said. “Zero will be restrained again when the rest of the Seis are restored. Though it's disgusting that some of them were allowed to call themselves members of the Seis.”  
  
“So you want to wait until Brain's back from... wherever he's gone... so you can give him back Nirvana?” Lucy said.  
  
The only idea she had was really, really stupid.  
  
“Yes!”  
  
“Aw, and you think maybe then he'll love you,” Lucy said, and dived backwards. The fake Midnight vanished, and a scream of fury rang around the hall.  
  
“Shut up!” A distortion slicer flashed over Lucy's head and hit the wall. He was on her right, she'd walked straight past him – Lucy yelped, scrambled up and bolted the other way.  
  
Above her, the ceiling warped. Lucy screamed and grabbed the nearest column, and swung out over the bowl as the roof came crashing down. The column cracked but didn't break.  
  
Silvery moonlight slanted into the hall. The wall had collapsed. Lucy whooped, darted around the column and burst out of the hall.  
  
She scrambled up the side of the building, onto the roof, and flattened herself against it. Her boots scraped on the tiles. Midnight followed her out. Lucy was almost certain. He was invisible, but he was stressed and getting sloppy and debris skittered under his boots as he moved.  
  
Lucy jumped off the roof and landed on him. “Yah!”  
  
Midnight crashed to the ground with a yell. Lucy snatched up a big chunk of brick with both hands and tried to bring it down on his head as he flickered into full visibility, but the rock twisted in her hands and hit his shoulder instead. Midnight snarled, wriggled like an eel, grabbed a fistful of Lucy's hair and yanked, hard. She recoiled with a squawk. Midnight kicked her in the side and knocked her away. Lucy threw the rock at his face, scrambled up and ran.  
  
Running was a bad idea.  
  
Midnight twisted the ground under her feet. Lucy slipped, fell and rolled, skinning her knees and elbows. Midnight hauled himself to his feet – she saw him for a split second, ghostly pale in the moonlight, lipstick smeared – before he swept his hand back for another distortion slicer. Lucy shrieked and covered her head with her arms.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!”  
  
Firelight glowed orange through Lucy's eyelids. Heat washed over her. She opened her eyes just in time to see Natsu drive his fist, wreathed in flame, into Midnight's stomach.  
  
The flames twisted and bent away from Midnight. The fist didn't. He was hurled backwards. Natsu tried to follow up with a kick to the skull, but Midnight rolled over and flung a volley of distortion slicers at him. Natsu dodged them all, but it still bought Midnight the time to get out of range.  
  
Crap. Lucy had figured out by this point that if Midnight wasn't close enough to get decked, he was pretty much impossible.  
  
“I thought I smelt eyeliner,” Natsu said, and grinned. “You're trying to stop us trashing Nirvana, huh? That's a pretty bad idea. Don't you know Fairy Tail mages specialise in destruction of property?”  
  
Midnight scowled.  
  
That was a really good point, actually.  
  
Lucy rolled over, and grabbed for her keys. “Open, Gate of the Lure! Andromeda!” Natsu and Midnight both looked around. Andromeda materialised in a flash of light. She was still wearing Lucy's form. Lucy clambered to her feet and pointed. “Change target! Natsu Dragneel!”  
  
Midnight had raised one hand to rip Andromeda apart, but that made him hesitate, and frown.  
  
Andromeda switched shape. The facsimile of Lucy's shape broke open, showing nothing but molten energy underneath, and she grew taller than the rooftops then taller still until her glow drowned out the stars. Her face elongated into a spiked reptilian snout. She fell forward, and two massive clawed feet thudded down on either side of Lucy as vast wings erupted from Andromeda's back. The glow died away, revealing red scales and a scarred leathery yellow underbelly, but her eyes still burned like great coals.  
  
“Dad!” Natsu shouted, and Lucy fell to her knees. This was... this was insane, this was like that moment in front of Karen Lilica's grave when she'd tried to summon all her spirits at once, she couldn't hold it more than – She screamed. “Fire!” Andromeda opened her mouth and breathed out a storm of flames.  
  
Happy dived out of the way with a squeal. The torrent of fire filled up the street, licked at the walls of the houses on either side and lit the sky blood-red.  
  
Midnight deflected it all. He stood stock-still and let the flames roil around him like a tornado. Lucy couldn't hold it another second. Andromeda guttered out. The fire died down. Sparks drifted across the paving stones and went out. The darkness was almost blinding. The only light left was the fire dripping from Natsu's mouth and hands.  
  
Midnight looked around. Natsu drank the flames from his cupped hands and licked sparks from his fingertips. “Nice one, Lucy!” His grin was broad and brilliant, lit from within. “Now that I've eaten, I'm all fired up!”  
  
Midnight blanched.  
  
“Hahahaha!” Lucy said. “Screw you!” And then she fell over.  
  
Natsu's skin hardened and cracked. Scales dappled his arms and the skin around his eyes. His jaws yawned open as his teeth sharpened and elongated, and, with a roar, he charged Midnight.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Claw!” The flames splashed harmlessly against Midnight's barrier, but the kick scythed clean through it. Midnight was hurled off his feet with a howl of rage, hit the ground and rolled. Natsu went after him, fist already drawn back. Midnight scrambled to the right, or seemed to-  
  
“Watch out! It could be-” Lucy shouted, but she didn't even get to finish her sentence before Natsu's fist slammed down through Midnight's head. The street cratered. Midnight flickered and disappeared.  
  
He was pretty quick with the fake-selves.  
  
He was pretty quick with the retaliation, too. “Spiral Pain!” Before Natsu could leap towards the sound of his voice, he was whipped off the ground by a vortex of distorted air. It whirled him around like a toy and slammed him back down into the ground. He sprawled on his back, panting, and didn't move.  
  
“Natsu?” Lucy said. “Natsu! Are you okay?” His eyes were closed. “Natsu!” She scanned the street. Where was Midnight? She tried to push herself to her hands and knees. Her arms shook and almost collapsed under her weight.  
  
“Natsu!” Happy mewed.  
  
Natsu's eyes snapped open. His feet ignited again, and he fired himself like a rocket, straight at Lucy. She screamed and dropped flat. Natsu twisted in midair. His fist came round. “Found you!” He hit Midnight like a freight train. Midnight was thrown backwards so hard he bounced, raising puffs of dust from the rubble-strewn street, and flickered into full visibility as he stopped skidding. Lucy scrambled back with a squeak. He'd been right behind her!  
  
Natsu chased after him. Midnight rolled over, and a double hopped up and darted away as the real Midnight vanished. He'd missed the dust that had settled in his hair and over his shoulders, though. Natsu waited a second for him to clamber to his feet, and then landed another kick right in the centre of his chest. Midnight was sent skidding across the cobbles for the second time in thirty seconds. Natsu went after him again. His whole attitude had changed; his mouth was set into a hard line, his eyes were narrowed and his eyebrows were drawn together. This wasn't the noisy, feckless kid who'd ambushed her and Juvia at the cake shop three months before.  
  
Midnight warped the paving stones into a shield. Natsu roared, summoned up an inferno around his feet and hands, and fired his fist at Midnight like a rocket. The shield shattered. Midnight had managed to scrabble out of the way while he was under cover, so the attack didn't hit him directly. What it did do was blast a hole in the street. It cracked open ancient water pipes, spilling trickles of rust-coloured water, and opened fissures into subterranean corridors. The ground yawed under them as Nirvana took another step, and the distant boom of the foot setting down rolled up the leg and through the foundations with a crack and a long, drawn-out groan. The gaping holes in the street opened wider. Cracks spread under Lucy's feet. She squawked, and grabbed wildly at the wall behind her. The impact had forced a fault in the stone wider, and it crumbled under her hand. “Kyah!”  
  
“Lucy!” Happy dropped down in front of her. Lucy grabbed his tail in both fists, and he pulled her away the second before the ground collapsed into one of those million underground passages. Why did the Nirvana people even have so many of those?  
  
“Thanks, Happy!”  
  
Midnight let out a wordless scream of rage and lifted both hands. He distorted the ground under Natsu until it churned like the sea, like an earthquake in miniature. Natsu yelped, hopped from crest to trough to crest to keep his footing, and had to fling himself to one side as Midnight hurled a volley of distortion slicers at his head.  
  
“Natsu!” Happy squeaked.  
  
“Natsu, be careful!” Lucy yelled, as Happy dropped her back to the ground. “If you overload the motion-sickness spell, it might break!”  
  
Natsu blanched. “It can break?”  
  
Midnight took the bait. He stretched out both hands, fingers hooked into claws, and snarled with effort. The houses around them liquidised and warped into bizarre, twisted shapes. The ground twisted into something that looked like windblown meringue. Natsu lost his balance as the ground rose up, and rolled and slid down into a narrow gorge. Midnight hopped lightly onto the rim of the gorge above him.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Roar!” A torrent of flame so hot it was almost white poured out of the gorge and lit up the night sky. Midnight stayed balanced on the edge of the chasm and took a moment to straighten his vest and his hair as the inferno roiled around him, kept at bay by his shield. Ugh. If Lucy had a rock, something, anything she could chuck at his head -  
  
The surge of flame went out. Natsu gasped in a deep breath. Midnight drew back his hand to cast another flurry of distortion slicers, and Nirvana took another step. Far below, the foot lifted off the ground. Its weight shifted onto the battered foundations, and they gave way.  
  
It sounded a little like a fusillade of gunfire, and a little like a glacier Lucy had seen, long before, when her parents had taken her on a trip to the far north, breaking apart and crashing together again as it flowed downhill. The whole leg broke off, and it took half the streets around them with it.  
  
Lucy shrieked and threw both arms over her head automatically. The lights still on in the lacrima hall guttered out as it fell away and a million tons of earth and stone seemed to vanish into the night, before it hit the ground. The impact shuddered through the city.  
  
They were balanced almost at the very edge of the city now, and suddenly Lucy could see the ground below them. They were nearly out of the forest. The treetops swallowed the moonlight into soft darkness but beyond that the landscape was studded with little lights.  
  
Midnight screamed so loudly, for a second Lucy thought something had landed on him and mangled a limb. “No! No!”  
  
Natsu clambered out of the canyon, and his face split open wide in a grin when he saw the wreckage. “Nice!”  
  
Midnight whirled round and let fly with a volley of distortion slicers which went wide. Natsu didn't bother to dodge. Midnight snarled and yanked at the ground under him.  
  
“Erk!” Natsu said, and hopped out of the way.  
  
“Oh my God,” Lucy said. “It's over! You don't even have time to stop the others! Nirvana's finished! Give up already!”  
  
“No!” Midnight's voice had risen to a demented shriek. “I won't fail! I won't-” He gestured, and Lucy's own shirt wrapped around her neck.  
  
“Urk!” Lucy clawed at the fabric squeezing her windpipe. Her fingers dragged in the cloth, but it didn't work, it just closed tighter around her neck like it was sewn there. She lurched backwards.  
  
“Lucy!” Happy yelped, and pulled at the fabric. “Are you okay? You're going red!”  
  
“Ghhk!” Lucy said.  
  
“Fire Dragon's Roar!”  
  
Lucy had a split second to think that of course Natsu would try to solve her strangulation problem by incinerating her, before she realised that she wasn't the target.  
  
Midnight dodged sideways, Natsu shot past him, grabbed a fistful of the noose around Lucy's neck, and tore it off. Lucy pulled her shirt back down, wheezing. There was a huge tear running halfway down the chest. Good thing she was wearing a tanktop under it.  
  
“Thanks - that was a nice shirt, you jerk!” she yelled at Midnight. “What did you do that for?” She flapped her hands angrily. “What are you doing any of this for? What good was blasting everyone with Nirvana going to do? What were you going to get out of that?”  
  
“Nirvana is the greatest weapon we can use against the legal guilds!” Midnight said. “It'll turn light into darkness, set friends at each others' throats – nothing would survive it! The whole world would crumble-”  
  
“Shut up!” Natsu snapped. “What are you talking about? The greatest weapon – there's nothing great about something that turns comrades against each other!” He bared his teeth. “Talking about our friendship like it's garbage – I won't forgive that!”  
  
“It's a stupid plan anyway!” Lucy said. “You're a dark guild. If you turn everywhere else into a dark guild too, you're just making competition for yourself!”  
  
“You're calling my father's plan stupid?”  
  
“It's completely stupid! You're stronger than Brain, why are you still hanging around with him? You could do a lot better!”  
  
“Don't insult my father!” Midnight hurled a distortion slicer right at her head. Lucy shrieked and dived behind Natsu, but it still whipped off a chunk of her hair as it passed. Lucy stayed behind Natsu. For some reason, something she'd heard Master Makarov say once popped back into her head. What he hated more than anyone was dark guild leaders who took kids and convinced them their only value was what they could do for them... Brain was probably one of the worst people she'd ever met.  
  
On the other hand, Midnight was obviously as dumb as a brick.  
  
“That's what's wrong with your guild!” Natsu said. “You don't understand how important it is to stand with your comrades!” Fire blazed up around both his fists. “I'll show you how wrong you are!”  
  
“You'll show me?” Midnight let out a peal of laughter. “I'll show you what'll happen to your precious guild!” He flung out both hands, and everything burst into flame.  
  
The light was blinding. Lucy yelled with shock, ducked her head and screwed her eyes shut automatically. She could feel the sweltering heat of the flames, and smell meat burning - She opened her eyes. She was gripping Natsu's jacket. Happy was perched on his other shoulder. Their shadows wavered in the light of the flames. Lucy looked up, squinting, and saw Erza sprawled face-down in the street. For a split second, she thought the red puddled around her head was just her hair, but her armour was broken and the flames were licking at her skin, turning it cracked and charred. And then the mangled heap beyond her, torn unrecognizable flesh and the sleeve of Ryos's jacket-  
  
“It's an illusion,” Lucy gasped, and choked on the sickly-sweet smell. The air was almost sludgy with it, too thick to breathe.  
  
It'd be blocking Natsu's sense of smell. Crap. Midnight had learned. “We're in trouble,” she said.  
  
“Yeah,” Natsu said, “were you serious about the Troia spell breaking?”  
  
“What? No,” Lucy said, “what's happening now is what-”  
  
“Good,” Natsu cut in, grabbed Happy off his shoulder and dropped him into Lucy's arms. “Stay right here!” He grabbed her shirt, pulled her close and spun around. “Dragon Slayer's Secret Art, Crimson Lotus-” He thrust out both fists in front of himself. “Fire Everywhere!” He swiped both fists back, and everything exploded. The illusion shattered, and a churning wall of flame rose up above them like a breaking tsunami. Lucy's mouth dropped open. It was searingly hot. She could feel the little hairs crisping on the back of her neck.  
  
Natsu let out a shout of glee and surged forward into the flames. They split around him. Natsu raced down the path as it unrolled before him before he burst into a clear space, a bubble where the fire couldn't reach, and through the barrier.  
  
Midnight half-turned-  
  
“Got you!” Natsu's fist hit him under the chin and threw Midnight clear off his feet. He hit the ground and bounced like a rag doll.  
  
Natsu watched him for a second, but he didn't move. Natsu raised his elbow over his head, pulled it out with the other hand to stretch his shoulder, and then turned away.  
  
“What?” Lucy said. “Is he down?”  
  
“Think so,” Natsu said.  
  
“How did you do that?”  
  
“Huh?” Natsu frowned at her, and then shrugged. “He could only reflect things in one place, right? Otherwise he wouldn't have had to dodge when I attacked him when he was trying to choke you. So I figured if I set everything on fire, he'd have to give up on the illusion to use his shield, and then I just found the bit that wasn't on fire.”  
  
“So... the solution was more fire,” Lucy said.  
  
“Yup,” said Natsu.  
  
Lucy couldn't believe the solution was more fire. She came up behind Natsu, carefully, and looked at Midnight. “Maybe we should go through his pockets.”  
  
“Huh?” said Natsu. “Why?”  
  
“Look at him,” Lucy said. “I know for a fact he's done nothing for the last three hours except cry and fight people and his eyeliner's not even smudged. I want to know what brand that is.”

* * *

“The girl with the blue hair,” Jellal said. “Who is she?”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I saw her in the cave. Why was she there?”  
  
“The Seis abducted her to heal you,” Erza said shortly. “She-” She hesitated for a moment. “They made her believe that you saved her life once, so she would help you.” It wasn't technically a lie. Mystogan was strange, and secretive, and almost certainly untrustworthy, but he was still a mage of Fairy Tail and she wouldn't give away his secrets.  
  
“Oh.” Jellal hung his head a little. “I'm sorry.”  
  
“Apologise to her, then,” Erza said. “We're here.” The lacrima hall was in front of them, but Erza didn't bother to go inside. She requipped to the Armadura Fairy Armour and rolled her shoulders as the weight of the pauldrons settled on them. The cloak fell loosely around her calves. Jellal took a step back. Erza drew the twin swords, took a deep breath, and lunged forward. The swords clashed together. “Fairy Piercing Sword!”  
  
The energy attack lit up the sky and carved a neat canyon thirty feet deep out of the ground all the way to the edge of the city, flinging up a cloud of dust that settled over Erza's armour and Jellal's loose coat and into their hair. Erza straightened up and brushed off her armour. Jellal didn't move.  
  
“You'd better take a step back,” Erza said, as she turned to do the other side and raised her swords again. She was interrupted by a shout.  
  
“Jellal!” Both of their heads snapped around. “So, you're still alive!”  
  
A tall man dressed in military-style garb stood in the entrance to the lacrima hall. He had pale skin, long grey hair and eyes red from edge to edge, like a demon or someone with acute conjunctivitis.  
  
“... hello,” Jellal said.  
  
“You blew up my tower,” the man said. His eyes narrowed. “You damaged my city.”  
  
Erza and Jellal traded glances, Jellal shrugged, and Erza raised her sword and settled into a fighting stance. Rather than attacking, though, the man just threw his head back and laughed. “Hahahaha! Ahahahaha!”  
  
Erza cut him off with a sharp gesture. “Who are you?”  
  
The man spread his hands wide, like he was showing himself off. “I am Brain's other self, Zero! The true master of the Oracion Seis!”  
  
“What do you know about this, Jellal?” Erza demanded.  
  
“Nothing,” Jellal said, and politely left the because I have amneeeesia unspoken.  
  
Zero laughed again. “How strange! Didn't Brain teach you everything you know?”  
  
“... apparently Brain wasn't a gifted teacher,” Jellal murmured.  
  
“He's forgotten everything,” Erza said shortly. “He says he doesn't remember anything before Etherion.”  
  
Zero smiled broadly. “Your mind is gone, Jellal?” He raised a hand. Green energy seethed around his fingers. “I'll send your body to join it! Dark Capriccio!”  
  
Erza leapt in front of Jellal, sword raised to block the attack.  
  
“Don't think that I use the same magic as Brain,” Zero said, and the attack arced smoothly away from Erza's blade and curved round to hit Jellal square in the back. He was knocked forward into Erza. She staggered, dived clear and requipped into the Black Wing Armour as she rolled to her feet.  
  
“Stay out of the way!” she shouted at Jellal – he'd looked as if he was about to step in – and leapt into the sky, snatching a two-handed claymore from her armoury as she did. Zero flung out a hand and countered with a barrage of tiny glowing spheres. Erza folded her wings in close as the barrage hit, only enough left to control her trajectory as she dived and wove between them, and then her wings snapped open and she spun to bring both boots down on Zero's head.  
  
She'd flown straight into a wave of dark energy. The attack hit her like a sledgehammer, spun her over and over and slammed her into the wall of a house opposite. Zero didn't waste time; another volley of the tiny spheres shattered the wall behind her like bullets as she dived sideways. He followed her, laughing, a relentless torrent of little lethal glowing orbs springing from his hands. She shot into the sky again to escape, and realised a second too late that she'd been in front of Jellal, and now the attack was headed straight for him.  
  
Worse, Jellal's first instinct was to dodge. He darted sideways, and his injured leg collapsed under his weight. He fell flat on his face.  
  
Erza flung herself in front of him and took the attack. Some of the glowing orbs caught on the blade of the claymore and cracked it down to the hilt. The rest broke against the pauldrons and tassets, on the protective spells layered around her torso, and tore through her wings. The right tasset cracked. The Black Wing Armor was made for speed and offense, not durability. It wouldn't take another hit like that.  
  
Jellal pushed himself to his feet with a stifled growl. “Let me help-”  
  
Erza pivoted, shifting into the Lightning Empress armour as she did, and knocked his feet out from under him with the spear. He fell over on his back with a startled yelp. Erza swung the spear, two-handed, and whirled it in a circle. “Lightning Storm!” The spell hurled jagged bolts of electricity at Zero. He laughed and fired off another wave of dark energy to meet it. The lightning tore through his spell. His eyes widened and he threw up a translucent green-tinged shield the split second before the attack hit.  
  
Erza drove the foot of the spear into the ground, between two paving slabs, and it stuck there. “Stay down!” she shouted at Jellal, and ran forward. More lightning spilled from the tip of the spear; it crackled against Zero's barrier and rebounded from the walls, but the Lightning Empress armour did its job. She dropped into the chasm she'd carved out with the Armadura Fairy and raced down it towards Zero. The Lightning Empress armour dissolved mid-stride into the Heaven's Wheel. The spear disappeared. The lightning spell broke. Erza shot out of the chasm. “Blumenblatt!” She blew past Zero's shield, slashing at it with her sabers as she went – primary strike – and behind her, her train of blades crashed into the shield. Secondary strike. The barrier cracked.  
  
Zero lashed out. Erza had expected that, had her sabers raised to deflect the spell, but he didn't attack her. He went for Jellal.  
  
“Dark Capriccio!”  
  
Erza summoned up a shield of interlaced swords to catch the attack, but it twisted away and dived into the ground instead. Jellal tracked it better; he raised a shield as the spell burst back out of the wall behind him, but the impact threw him forward and he fell again with a cry of pain. Erza hissed between her teeth and darted between him and Zero.  
  
Zero slammed both hands against the ground. “Dark Gravity!” It felt like a massive hand slapped them both into the floor. The ground cracked, green light shining through the gaps, and the edge of the chasm crumbled under them. They crashed down in a tangled heap.  
  
Ow. One of her metal wings had dented under Jellal's weight. Flying capacity severely reduced, unless she wanted to fly in a circle. Erza gritted her teeth and pushed herself up with one hand on Jellal's head. Zero came to the edge of the chasm and grinned down at them.  
  
“I can't help but wonder - why are you so interested in defending him?” he said. “Shouldn't you want to see him destroyed more than anyone? After what he did to your companions-”  
  
“It's because of what he did to our friends,” Erza said flatly. “I want him to face justice, and I want Millianna and Wally to see it done!” She drew a sabre from her armoury. “You're in my way, and I won't allow that!”  
  
Zero laughed again. “I'm the master of the Oracion Seis!” he said. “A mere guild soldier can't hope to best me.”  
  
“Will you let me help?” Jellal asked softly. Erza stood, her sword raised. Jellal climbed to his feet behind her and moved forward. She reached back, grabbed his wrist and tightened her grip until he stayed still.  
  
“I'm bored of you now,” Zero announced. “But as a special favour, I'll destroy you with my greatest spell!”  
  
He stretched out both hands and brought them around clockwise, drawing a circle in the air. Dark energy followed his hands like the tail of a comet. “Genesis Zero! Disappear to the void beyond!” An army of wraiths coalesced around him, thin shrieking things with tiny grasping hands and hungry gaping mouths. “Denizens of nothing, take their souls! Devour their existence!” He flung out his hand, and the army surged forward. They broke over Erza and Jellal like a wave, so closely packed they blocked out all light.  
  
Ugh. It was Jose Porla all over again. Erza switched to the Adamantine Armour. She still had Jellal's wrist in her grip, and she kept a tight grip on him as she slashed at the wraiths ahead of her. The howling ghosts blocked out her vision. She couldn't see anything except undulating darkness; she couldn't feel anything except wraiths sliding against her face, clawing at the edges of her helmet and Jellal's pulse racing under her fingers.  
  
“Let me help!” he said. His voice sounded like it was coming from a very long way away.  
  
“I don't need your help,” Erza snapped.  
  
“I remember you,” he said. “I remember... warmth, and kindness... I'm sorry for what I've done to you, and I know you don't need my help and it won't make up for anything, but I want to give it anyway! I want to help you beat this guy!”  
  
“... I'm not forgiving you,” Erza said. She let go of his wrist, and held out her hand. He grabbed it, and offered her everything he had. She took it.  
  
It was like his skin opened up. She settled into his bones, felt the throbbing pain of the wound in his leg and how he leant on it anyway, the guilt like a stone in his stomach; she felt the warmth of her own fingers on his wrist, the rush of power, the wreckage of his mind -  
  
“Come on!” Jellal shouted.  
  
Massive gold-coloured pauldrons shaped like a lion's open, snarling mouth settled over her shoulders. A white sash ringed her head like a halo, and her free hand closed around the shaft of a halberd. “Nakagami Starlight!” A pinprick of brilliant light appeared at the tip of the blade. The wraiths howled and fought to get away from it. Erza took a step forward, and brought the halberd down. The point of light blossomed into a long, glowing arc like the sun coming up over the horizon. It cut cleanly through Zero's spell, and then it cut through everything else. It sliced houses neatly in two, in almost perfect silence, and left one half standing as the other dropped away.  
  
Well, that had taken care of their assigned joint, as well.  
  
For a moment the fading remnants of the light silhouetted a small figure, limbs flailing, falling away, and then the light died and the darkness came rushing back.  
  
The light had ruined her night vision, Erza thought blankly. That could be a problem.  
  
Jellal hissed and recoiled against the wall, pulling Erza with him. They were balanced on a narrow ledge now, right on the edge of the city. The new cliff face was sheer and almost polished.

Erza didn't look at the wreckage. The halberd disintegrated in her hands, and she turned around, grabbed the back of Jellal's neck and thumped his head into her breastplate. He made a muffled noise.  
  
“You're such an idiot,” she murmured. “You've been such an idiot.” She'd seen inside his head. There was a rent running clean through his mind. A compulsion spell, with its roots buried deep and its tendrils twining into every inch of his brain. She could see the space left behind where it had been ripped out. No wonder he couldn't remember anything; his mind looked like a demolition zone.  
  
Compulsion spells were never unbreakable, though. It was just _him_. He was too stubborn, too obsessive. She'd heard people try to convince him to stop, to tell him it was impossible, and he just ignored them and worked harder. Once something had got into his head, he'd never let anyone shift it. It was still his own fault.  
  
“You've been such an idiot,” she said, and her voice caught on a sob.

* * *

On the other side of the city, Juvia turned into her water form and dived into the ground, spinning like a pneumatic drill and tearing free great chunks of earth and stone.  
  
Gajeel spiked a dozen iron bars deep into the city's foundations and used them like crowbars to pry the rock apart.  
  
Ryos's shadows clawed into the ground, opening cracks and gashes in the bedrock. Wendy drew in a deep breath and blew it out in a roar that forced air deep into the foundations, and then more and more until the rock broke under the pressure and the city snapped apart under its own weight.  
  
Gray settled into his fighting stance, both hands clasped into fists at his hip, and exhaled, but he didn't get the chance to strike. Before Wendy and Ryos's attack, the whole city had been precariously balanced on two legs. It was no longer balanced at all.  
  
The ground tipped sideways, and the city fell towards the ground. Gray yelled and fell and skidded down the street on his stomach. “Gah!” A wall loomed up ahead of him. He flipped over, created a wall of ice to divert himself away from it and kept sliding.  
  
Wendy and Ryos had fallen, too, but Wendy had reflexively grabbed for a death grip on Ryos's jacket as they toppled over and Carla had hauled them both into the air. They hovered on an upgust and watched the city hit the ground, with a crack and a crash of trees breaking under them. After another minute, they watched Gray slide past underneath them, yelling.  
  
“Should we help him?” Wendy said.  
  
“I'm not sure. He might be enjoying it,” said Ryos.  
  
Lucy and Natsu had blasted off with Natsu's rocket-feet propulsion magic and a lot of high-pitched screaming. They crash-landed on a pile of rubble.  
  
“You couldn't have tried to land on-” Lucy said muzzily, as she lifted her head, before her eyes came back into focus and she realised that there wasn't very much left that wasn't a pile of rubble. “Actually, never mind.”  
  
The impact had splattered Juvia across the street, and she'd only just pulled herself back together when she heard a distant yell, growing rapidly less distant, and then Gray slid through her.  
  
“Sorry!” he yelled back, and came to a slow halt against an ice wall a little further down.  
  
Erza had yanked Jellal close and covered him when Nirvana collapsed. As the dust settled, she lifted her head and looked around. Everything had been flattened. The Nakagami Armour had dissolved, leaving her in her blouse and blue skirt. Jellal untangled himself, with considerable care, trying not to touch her more than was absolutely necessary.  
  
“You should regroup with your teammates,” Jellal said. Erza was already requipping into the Morning Star Armour. She raised one sword above her head, and fired a blast of green light into the sky.  
  
“...that should do it,” Jellal said, as the blast exploded like a firework over the city.  
  
Half a mile away, Happy pointed. “Boom!”  
  
Lucy looked around quickly. “That's got to be a signal-”  
  
Natsu was already moving. “Come on!” He bounded over heaps of debris and rubble like a monkey. Lucy scrambled after him.  
  
“I should say thanks,” she called after him. He was perched on top of a pile, looking down at her as she clambered up on her hands and knees. Small rocks skittered free under her. “That was surprisingly smart.”  
  
Crap. That came out sounding like more of an insult than she meant it to.  
  
Natsu just grinned. “Don't worry about it! We're even now, right?”  
  
“Even for what?”  
  
“Kidnapping you,” Natsu said.  
  
“Oh, yeah. Sure, we're even.” Really, he wasn't so hopeless as she'd thought he was.  
  
Natsu was one-hundred percent certain it'd been Erza who'd sent up the signal, but when they got to the approximate place it had been fired from – very approximate, because everything being in little pieces made it hard to judge distances – she wasn't anywhere to be seen. There was just more heaps of rubble and broken trees. They were very near the edge of the crash site.  
  
“She's gone off somewhere,” Natsu said, and took another sniff. “Not long ago. She'll be back.” He brightened up. “Hey, Gray's-”  
  
“Oi, Natsu!”  
  
“Lucy!” Juvia called, and pattered over to Lucy's side. “Juvia is glad to see you! Juvia was not worried because Juvia has decided to be confident in Lucy's abilities, but she is still very glad to see you!”  
  
“Aw, I'm glad to see you too,” Lucy said, and pulled her into a hug.  
  
Wendy and Ryos were the next to arrive, dropping out of the sky, followed by Gajeel. He looked a lot happier than the rest of them, but that was probably because the collapse had exposed a lot of supporting metalwork. Around a mouthful of rust-tinged iron, he asked, “You get yours, Ashley?”  
  
“Technically, yeah!” Lucy said, and gave him a thumbs-up. He grinned and tipped his head back to swallow.  
  
“Did you get yours, Gray?” Natsu said.  
  
“'Course,” Gray said. “Probably quicker than you did. Ice is better for this sort of thing.”  
  
“No, it isn't.”  
  
“Yeah, it is. It happens all the time. Ice erosion. What did you do, melt yours off?”  
  
“I didn't do mine, I did Lucy's, Wendy and Ryos did mine,” Natsu said. Gajeel looked up.  
  
“Um, no, Midnight broke my point off because I tricked him into it, that's mine,” Lucy said. “You can have the credit for taking Midnight out, but not-”  
  
“But you wouldn't have been able to trick him without me, anyway!” Natsu said.  
  
Gray just looked immensely smug, and turned away. “I'm going to find Erza,” he said, and walked straight into an invisible wall. “Gah! What the hell?” He recoiled, one hand over his nose. Juvia looked past Lucy and made a noise like a startled guinea pig. Her eyes went huge and starry with adoration.  
  
That meant Lahar was here. That meant someone was about to get arrested.  
  
“It was self-defence!” Lucy called out hurriedly before she turned around. Wow. Well, she was right, it was Lahar, and he'd brought all his friends. A thin bubble, barely visible as a shimmer in the air, had closed around their group, and a whole platoon of Rune Knights was standing on the other side. Four of them were trying to haul a van with solid steel doors around a heap of rubble.  
  
Judging by Natsu's face, the bubble had blocked off his sense of smell. He didn't look happy about being snuck up on.  
  
“What the hell?” Gray said. “Who's this-”  
  
“He's Juvia's boyfriend,” Lucy hissed sharply.  
  
“ - person?” Gray finished, with only a moment of hesitation.  
  
“Captain Lahar, of the 4th Custody Enforcement Unit,” Lahar said, and Juvia nearly died on the spot.  
  
“With the Council? They've reformed?” Gray said. He glanced sideways at Lucy. “Did you know about this?”  
  
“You heard me say he's Juvia's boyfriend, right?” Why were they stuck in a bubble? Was it just because of the Fairies? No, it was probably just regulation, and as an added bonus it stopped Juvia from flinging herself into Lahar's arms in front of his co-workers.  
  
“Good-” She shot a quick look at the horizon. “-morning! Can we help you, officer?”  
  
“Juvia would love to help!” Juvia volunteered. She'd gone pink.  
  
“We were sent here to arrest the remaining members of the Oracion Seis,” Lahar said.  
  
“Oh! They're over there somewhere,” Juvia said, and waved at the entire city. “They were all unconscious last time we saw them, so it should be very simple!”  
  
“... Thank you. Our initial surveillance showed a greater threat, however. One who infiltrated and destroyed the Council. Jellal Fernandes.”  
  
“He's...” Lucy looked around, and finished lamely, “... here somewhere. After everything collapsed, it was hard to keep track... Erza's watching him, though!”  
  
“Our orders are to take him into custody. We are authorised to use lethal force if he resists,” Lahar said. Juvia blinked, and then her eyes narrowed at the idea that someone might object to being arrested by Captain Lahar.  
  
Lahar couldn't be having a great morning, Lucy thought. His first mission as captain was to capture the Seis, who were formidable enough, but then he'd also been charged with arresting a Mage Saint who could probably beat the Seis like a pinata and who hadn't shown the least hesitation about exploding his own friends in the head. He must know that if Jellal decided to resist, his forces might not be enough to contain him, and even if they were then a hell of a lot of them could die doing it. And then his girlfriend showed up in the crossfire? But he wasn't blinking. Maybe he was almost good enough for Juvia after all.  
  
“It's lucky that I don't plan on resisting, then,” Jellal said. Lucy whipped around. Lahar's head snapped up. Half the Rune Knights jerked and raised their staffs with a haste that showed how on-edge they really were. Jellal stepped down carefully from a heap of rubble off to the right, arms out for balance, and limped around the bubble towards Lahar. Erza stood at the top of the heap and watched him. Juvia started forward, eyes fixed on Jellal, fingers twitching like she might just fire off a Water Slicer now to be on the safe side. Lucy would be okay with that, really.  
  
Lahar gestured, and the bubble spell switched off. Jellal stopped in front of Lahar – the other Rune Knights drew away slightly – and held out both hands. Another Knight stepped forward and fixed a set of heavy cuffs around his wrists. Lucy could feel the magic-dampening effect snap on from where she stood.  
  
Wendy had been staring open-mouthed, but now she started and swallowed and opened her mouth again to protest. Lucy tried to catch her eye and warn her to really not do it, but it didn't work.  
  
“Wait, please! He's lost his memory, he doesn't remember doing those things!”  
  
“Under article 13 of the penal code, that constitutes no cause for pardon,” Lahar said.  
  
“But-”  
  
“Don't worry, it's all right,” Jellal said, and held up his cuffs. “I'm going quietly, see?”  
  
Wendy's lower lip wobbled. Jellal caught Erza's eye and flicked his gaze to Wendy. She slid down from her heap of rubble and went to her side. She put a heavy hand on Wendy's shoulder which looked more like an attempt to restrain her than console her. Her face was white and impassive, like a statue of a martyr in church.  
  
“I am... truly sorry for the trouble I have caused you,” Jellal said formally. “Erza... thank you. For everything.”  
  
She was looking down at the ground. Her knuckles were going slowly white on Wendy's shoulder. Wendy didn't seem to feel it. Both her hands were pressed over her mouth, and her eyes were swimming.  
  
“Is that all you have to say?” Lahar asked.  
  
“Yes,” Jellal said.  
  
“It is almost certain that your sentence will be execution or life imprisonment. You will never see any of these people again.”  
  
Wendy gasped. “That's too cruel!”  
  
Jellal said nothing. Lahar gave him a second to think, then stepped away and nodded to the Knights by the van. They touched all four of their staffs to the iron doors, there was a whirr and a clunk of complex mechanisms unlocking, and the doors swung open.  
  
Jellal took a deep breath, and a step towards the van, and stopped. Lahar tensed. Jellal just said “Oh,” like he'd just realised something really simple. “It's the colour of your hair.”  
  
Erza started. Her eyes filled up with tears. What?  
  
“Goodbye, Erza,” he said, and then he was gone. The doors closed behind him.  
  
Lucy hadn't really expected him to go quietly. Huh.  
  
As the bolts slid back into place, Lahar's shoulders slumped a little. Juvia was at his side immediately, threading her hand through his arm.  
  
“Captain Lahar!”  
  
“Miss Lockser. It's good to see you again,” he said. “Are you all right? Your team? We have medics if any of you need attention.”  
  
“Juvia is fine now!” she said. “Juvia is so proud to hear of your promotion! Well done!” She smiled, and added loyally, “You deserved it.”  
  
“It's kind of you to say so,” Lahar said. “I sent you a letter at Oak Town, though I shouldn't imagine it's arrived yet.”  
  
“Wait, sir, wait,” the Knight next to him said, and stared at Juvia with wide eyes. “Is this _the_ Miss Lockser? The one you're seeing? The one who made those cookies you brought in?”  
  
“Did you like them? Juvia will send the recipe next time,” Juvia said, and Lahar nodded.  
  
“Seriously,” the Knight said. He looked Juvia up and down, looked at Lahar. Back to Juvia. Back to Lahar. “Seriously?”  
  
“I'm very fortunate,” Lahar said.

* * *

Afterwards, there were a lot of interviews, because apparently you couldn't just drop a city somewhere without generating a lot of paperwork, but after that, the four of them went back to Oak Town. With Phantom Lord disbanded, there wasn't any real guild presence, and it was a good place to find work until the bounties on the Seis came through. Plus, it was still where all their stuff was.  
  
A noticeboard had been set up in the town hall advertising to freelance mages. Gajeel and Juvia looked it over while Lucy and Ryos watched them from the window of the ice-cream parlour on the other side of the road. Lucy scraped the last vestiges of caramel from the bottom of her bowl and licked the spoon clean, then got up to put her empty bowl on the counter.  
  
“Hey,” a familiar voice asked behind her. “How's the ice-cream, then?”  
  
Lucy glanced back over her shoulder, and didn't see anyone. Her forehead creased.  
  
“Down here,” the voice said. Lucy looked down. It was Master Makarov.  
  
“Erk,” she said, and stared at him.  
  
“That bad, huh?”  
  
Lucy glanced past him. She couldn't see Gajeel and Juvia from the bar. Ryos was busy chasing a cherry around his bowl.  
  
“They do some pretty weird flavours,” she said. “Juvia got the squid ink. Said it was pretty good.” And the staff hadn't been all that shocked when Ryos gave them a bag of wing nuts to sprinkle over Gajeel's mint-choc-chip cookie dough sundae, either.  
  
Makarov made a face, hopped up onto the stool next to her, and waved to get the cashier's attention. “Squid ink, please! Never tried squid ink before,” he added casually. “How are you finding freelance work?”  
  
Well, mostly, it was finding them.  
  
“Newspapers, town noticeboards,” Lucy said. “That's where people advertise, outside of a guild.”  
  
He shot her a sidelong look. Uh. Maybe that hadn't been how he meant it.  
  
“Sounds like a pain,” he said. “Why don't you sign up with us?” Lucy gaped at him. “We get more missions than we can deal with these days, with the Thunder God Tribe on leave. Besides, I heard you've got two Dragon Slayers, and I'm after the whole set. Wendy Marvell joined us a few weeks ago. You mightn't have heard.”  
  
Yeah, that was weird, how Wendy's guild had turned out not to exist. Between that and the Jellal thing, she was going to need so much therapy.  
  
“I'm not sure we'd fit in,” Lucy said.  
  
“I heard there'd been a little trouble,” Makarov agreed. “You said some pretty unpleasant things to some of my mages, and whether it's only words or not, I don't forgive anyone who tries to hurt my brats.”  
  
Lucy blinked, and for a second, she was trying to calculate how to get away from a mage saint in an ice-cream parlour. Step one was to throw her ice-cream bowl at his head and leg it, but the rest was a mystery.  
  
“You helped us out a lot, though, with the tower and the trouble Laxus caused,” Makarov said. “And Loke seems to like you.” He shrugged. “Shan't lie, there's one of your teammates I'd have a word with, but that counts for something. Oh, my ice-cream's here.” The cashier set a bowl of black ice-cream down in front of him with a clink. Makarov scooped up a bit on the end of his spoon and held it for a moment. He looked at her sideways. “You've got a problem of your own, haven't you? Seems like it might be the sort of thing that gets worse if you leave it. If you're planning to find a specialist, going through a guild is generally the best way.”  
  
That was true. “It's kind of you to offer,” Lucy said.   
  
“Not really,” Makarov said. “I'm packing it in now. I'm too old to be wrangling kids like Natsu any more. Mirajane's taking it over. So whether you join or not, you're not my problem.” He smiled broadly, popped the ice-cream into his mouth, and stopped dead. There was a long pause before he swallowed.  
  
“Juvia did say it tasted rather metallic,” Lucy said. “Juvia likes weird flavours. I should probably have mentioned.”  
  
Makarov gingerly dunked his spoon in again, licked the back, and then pushed the bowl away. “Shouldn't have tried it,” he said, and shrugged. “Any thoughts?”  
  
Lucy tapped her fingers on the bar.  
  
“I'd have to talk to my team about it. And I'm not sure what they'll say.” Even if joining a guild was the right way forward - Ryos could do with more company, and she did need to find someone to help her out - Gajeel didn't exactly play well with others, and Juvia would probably object just because they were Fiore's number-one guild at ticking off the Council, and what would Captain Lahar think?  
  
“Well, pop in if you decide to take me up on it,” Makarov said. “Not if it's in the middle of January, though; that's when we're having our S-rank trials and it's going to be a pain to set up.” He hopped down from the stool and waved. “See you around!” He headed for the door.  
  
Lucy looked up. Ryos was staring at her. The bell over the door jingled as Juvia and Gajeel came in, and Makarov slid out past them. Juvia stopped, and looked back. She mouthed at Lucy, 'Was that-'  
  
“What was _he_ doing here?” Gajeel said.  
  
Ryos pointed his spoon at Lucy accusingly and said, “Lucy was talking to him.”  
  
Juvia and Gajeel's heads swivelled to look at her.  
  
“Okay, seriously, I was just about to tell them,” Lucy said, and went back to the table. “Okay, listen. He had a suggestion-”  
  
It was impossible to argue, really, that there wasn't something nasty in Lucy, and she wasn't even talking about the monster growing like ivy out of her soul. Maybe it hadn't used to be there.  
  
She couldn't regret having joined Phantom Lord, though. It had made her stronger, and she wouldn't have met Juvia or Gajeel or Ryos if she hadn't. If she... maybe needed people to keep an eye on her, she had them. How much more did she need?

 

 

 

 

* * *

JELLAL: So… if you’re Brain's other personality… why are you white?  
  
ERZA: Oh my _God_ , Jellal, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.

 

See, last time I posted when I said this would be finished around September, I didn't realise how accurate that was gonna be? Sorry!


End file.
